The Moon's Shadow
by ablackenedrose
Summary: In a world where Ddraig and Albion never existed, their role was taken by another, and inflicted its own burden upon humanity. This burden creates a whole new wave of possibilities and problems for Issei Hyoudou. But as he'll soon learn, one can't always escape the past and its sins... even when they aren't necessarily yours.
1. The Nightmare's Watch

_So yeah, this is getting a complete rebuild. I realized that the original had the constant problem of taking the spotlight away from Issei and also not changing nearly as much as I'd think it should, especially with what a certain character was stated to get up to for centuries at a time. As a result, this iteration is far more focused on Issei himself and his growing strength, while also having a number of differences from canon that will be apparent very quickly._

 _I do not own Highschool DxD._

* * *

At some point in their lives, most humans possess some fear of the darkness. The absence of light within a space terrifies many of those who seek the embrace of the sun. For all but a few, of course, it is not the shadow itself that frightens. Instead, it is what may be disguised, hidden within the gloom. For most, this fear never entirely vanishes; why else would so many films utilize shadows with the intent to cause that exact sensation, to disguise the monster, the murderer or the horrific shock?

As one might expect, Issei Hyoudou's first emotion upon finding himself within a seemingly endless expanse of darkness was anxiety – one which only grew worse with every passing moment. It was not just the fear of something leaping out and attacking him that sent the teen's anxiety into overdrive. As he examined his memories in a steadily-rising panic, the brown-haired seventeen-year old realized that he had no idea _how_ he had come to be here, or any clue where "here" might be. No area in Kuoh (or anywhere else, for that matter) was ever _this_ dark.

Instinctively, Issei began to yell. "Hey! I-Is anyone there?! Hello?!" For more than a minute this went on, the brunette screaming everything he could think of to get someone's attention. There had to be _someone_ around here, didn't there?

But the darkness swallowed his cries for help and offered no response in turn.

Not sure what else to do, Issei began to move forwards, first at a walk, then at a run.

He would've sworn he wasn't changing position... until he crashed headlong into something very, very hard.

Issei's sharp cry of pain echoed through the blackness as he fell flat on his back, and one hand found his forehead.

Once the neon sparks stopped blinding him, Issei shakily stood once more, and against better judgment reached towards what hit him.

For a moment, his fingers met nothing but the empty air, and Issei wondered if whatever he'd hit had moved aside in the thirty seconds or so since he'd fallen.

Then, under his fingertips, Issei felt the same hard substance with which he'd collided. One moment of sliding his fingers down it sent them jerking backwards, the body to which they were attached doing the same a fraction of a moment later.

It wasn't some wall that he'd crashed into. That would've made some degree of sense. No, whatever it was that he'd touched didn't have the feel of brick or mortar or concrete. The things he'd touched were undeniably _scales_.

Whatever he'd crashed into, it was some enormous beast hidden in the darkness. Even as he stepped back, he could hear the immense, scaled creature shift, the sound of massive weight crashing through Issei's ears. Instinctively, he turned – and immediately froze.

Where before, there had been only endless darkness, there was now a very thin, faint silver glow, hanging in midair.

Even as Issei watched it, the glow grew from a thin crescent into a large oval shape. As it did so, the glow grew brighter, until Issei was able to perceive his own flesh in the darkness.

The brunette stared into the silver light for several seconds, unsure of what to do or how to react. It wasn't until he noticed something out of the corner of his eye that he even blinked. His head turned a moment later.

Three or so feet away, another glow of the same kind was forming, taking the same shape and form as the first.

Issei's eyes darted both ways as he tried in vain to keep both in his sights. Issei had no idea what in the hell was going on here, but he wanted out and he wanted out _now_.

Then equidistant between them, a third light took the same shape as the first two. Just moments after it had finished expanding, a slow, long and low rumble echoed through Issei's ears.

It took a few moments to realize that it wasn't just any rumble; it was the growl of this colossal creature behind him. His head swung, but the trio of lights did not reach that far; all he saw was the impenetrable black stretching out behind him.

Stuck between the fearful trio of lights and the scaled beast behind him, Issei found himself muttering feverishly beneath his breath.

"If this is a nightmare, _please_ let me wake up...!"

He didn't expect a response, but he received one all the same.

 **"Would this be such?"**

The voice that spoke seemed to come from everywhere. It was scratchy but absurdly deep, far deeper than any natural voice he'd ever heard.

"Uh... yes?" Issei found himself replying.

A low snort filled Issei's ears. **"So...** _ **you**_ **are the next...?"**

"Who are you?" Issei demanded, if fearfully. "What do you mean, "the next"?"

 **"Return to rest's oblivion, child... all will be revealed... in time..."**

One by one, the trio of silver lights went out.

* * *

Issei's eyes snapped open, and almost instantly he became aware of the cold sweat he was drenched in.

 _What in the hell was that about?_

It was the third of the incredibly vivid nightmares he'd had in three nights, and he was already more than sick of them. First, there had been that one where the brunette had gotten a girlfriend, only for her to murder him at the end of the first date. But before that, she'd...

He shivered as he remembered the enormous crow-like wings that had torn loose from her back. The spear that she'd skewered him with... he would have sworn it was constructed from pure light, even though that was obviously impossible. And the pain... oh dear _God_ , the pain... He could still feel it if he thought about it, even now.

Then there was the second one, with that guy in the trench coat doing the same damn thing to him. At least that one had had a happier outcome, what with the hottest girl in the school showing up to save his life with a few well-placed words.

And now there was this dream of an infinite black void, silver lights and an unseen scaled creature. Why the hell had his brain become so set on screwing with him this way? What on earth had he done wrong?

Then, as he sat up and rubbed at his eyes, he heard a voice he never thought he'd hear.

"You're finally awake, then?"

His head flicked over to the source of the voice, brain denying that it could possibly be.

But it was, and there she sat, at his desk.

Rias Gremory was a gorgeous young woman – every pupil that attended Kuoh Academy would agree with that. Her skin was flawless and just the right tone of pale to make a beautiful contrast against her red hair that extended down her back. And then, of course, there was that _massive_ chest of hers. Dressed in her tight school uniform, it was a most prominent feature, bouncing and swaying with her every movement.

"My eyes are up here."

His embarrassment at being called out was enough to get his brown eyes focused on hers. When he looked into them, however...

Why the hell did she look afraid of him?

"I'll make this brief," Rias said, her tone unnaturally hurried. "My name is Rias Gremory, and I'm a Devil. I'm also your master." A forced smile came across her lips. "Good to meet you, Issei Hyoudou."

"Wait, what?" Issei said, confused and trying to make sense of this scene before him. "Devil? Master? What are you-"

Rias raised a hand, cutting him off. "I'll explain everything after class today. You and I have school to get to, do we not?" That same forced smile came over her face again. "Don't be late."

She stood up a little too quickly for Issei's liking, and any thoughts that would normally have invaded his head about her breasts bouncing about didn't manifest.

Issei's jaw dropped as a glowing circle appeared beneath her feet. It was a bright crimson, with a rose-like shape set into it.

"I'll send someone to fetch you after class," Rias said.

Then, a flash of light enveloped her.

When it faded, she was gone, and so was the circle.

* * *

For several minutes after Rias Gremory apparently warped out of his bedroom, Issei's thoughts ran wild in lightning-fast and unfocused trains. They bounced about, none sticking on any others or in his conscious mind long enough to be processed and analyzed.

The only conclusion he could draw was the obvious: Two unbelievably vivid dreams of being murdered and then one about a meeting with an unseen creature in the black just before he woke up with Rias Gremory sitting at his desk and calling herself his "master" couldn't be a coincidence.

"Issei?"

It was only at the sound of his mother's voice that Issei finally snapped back to reality.

"Yeah, I'm up!" Issei called. "Just getting dressed! Give me a few minutes!"

As he haphazardly threw his clothes on, Issei reflected on the nightmares and this morning a bit more.

* * *

Issei had known something was wrong the moment he sat down at the breakfast table.

His parents were there, as always, but it was as though a wall had come up between himself and his parents. Their words were terse – not maliciously so, but the sort of words someone might use if they were afraid of who they were speaking to. Not once throughout the meal did the teen's own parents look him in the eye.

By the time breakfast finished, Issei only wished he could go back to bed, fall back asleep and forget the whole morning.

And when he stepped out the door and into the sun, he immediately felt even worse.

Sure, he was a teenager and wasn't exactly a morning person. But he'd never felt physical discomfort simply from being in the sunlight before. Actually, scratch discomfort. He felt straight-out _weak_. What the hell had happened to his body?

It wasn't a crippling pain by any means, but he desperately wanted to get inside and out of the sun, to a degree that Issei knew wasn't natural.

That pain made the walk to school feel much longer than it should have, and things didn't get any better when he arrived.

Kuoh Academy had been an all-girls school at one point not too long ago, and the ratio of male-to-female students still weighed heavily in favor of the ladies. Sure, it eased up the further down the grades one went, but girls still made up the majority of the population. For a pervert like him, this had seemed perfect, and he'd done more studying than ever before or since to make sure he got in.

He had rather failed to consider, so blinded was he with his dream of building a harem, that most girls found perverted boys rather annoying. Not that he'd ever come to that conclusion on his own.

In other words, he was used to being looked at by the average girl as though he was something she had scraped off the bottom of her shoe, and expected that when he encountered a small group of them outside the gate.

Yet as he drew near, the expected disgust quickly transformed into barely hidden fear, just like what had been on Rias' face.

"Uh..."

Issei didn't get out more than that before the girls had collectively darted into the school.

 _First Rias and now this...?_

What the hell was going on?

* * *

The school day didn't get any better from there.

Matsuda and Motohama, two teenagers just as perverted as Issei himself, not to mention his only friends, had the same fearful look, and seemed to be making excuses to stay away from him. Even asking them if they wanted to go spy on the ladies' locker room was a request they denied, leaving Issei shocked. The only meaningful human interaction they had with him was to tell him that they had no idea who "Yuuma" was.

The other students weren't any better. Every single other person in the school seemed deathly afraid of him, even if literally no one would come out and say it. Issei had grown more and more aggravated with every second that passed, and by the very last period of the day wanted absolutely nothing but to go home, hide in bed and forget today had happened. Only the memory of Rias Gremory's words kept him from leaving his final classroom.

Issei could only hope that she might be able to explain what was going on.

The teacher of his final class didn't stick around much longer than his students, and Issei could only guess that he was the reason for that. Everyone and everything wanted to be as far away from him as possible.

As he stared out the window into the late afternoon sky, Issei's thoughts turned back once more to the nightmare he'd had the night before. He analyzed the details again, from the darkness itself to the feel of the scales beneath his skin to the trio of enormous silver lights.

More than all else, however, was the voice. That deep, booming voice that put the deepest human voices he'd ever heard to shame. Every word that voice had spoken had left Issei feeling as though he was being shaken to the core of his soul. The few words it had spoken were formal and rather old-fashioned in its wording. No person he'd ever encountered in his day-to-day life spoke in a way that even remotely resembled that voice, nor did any fictional character.

Even as Issei sat there, recalling the details of that nightmare and the other two, he became less and less convinced they were nightmares.

Perhaps it was just some frustration boiling over and demanding an explanation. In fact, that seemed more likely. Yet Issei was seventeen, and he knew full well that no dream he'd ever had prior to the last three was a fraction as vivid as those three had been. Yet he'd awoken in bed with no injuries in the previous two cases, so they must have been, right?

That, however, still left the final one – the one in the dark with the scaled beast. And that defied the easy negation of the prior two. That voice had said that "all would be revealed in time", hadn't it?

 _I hope it's got a really good explanation, then..._

"Issei Hyoudou?"

For the third time that day, Issei was yanked out of his thoughts by a familiar voice. He turned his head to the source of the words.

Yuuto Kiba was the complete opposite of Issei in most ways. He was quite the handsome teen, kind and courteous to all and beloved by the girls of Kuoh Academy.

In other words, he was someone Issei detested any other day. Today, however, Issei didn't care enough to spare him much of an extra glance.

He only needed one to see the fear hidden behind the forced smile.

"So," Issei said, keeping his eyes elsewhere, "where are we going? I _assume_ you were sent to fetch me by Rias."

Kiba nodded. "One of the old buildings. Follow me."

* * *

Issei had been at Kuoh Academy for more than a year, and he knew full well that there were several old, abandoned buildings on the campus, hidden away among the trees. It was a rather large campus, and Issei had always thought that perhaps the old buildings just hadn't provided enough room for the swelling population.

He had not, however, ever been inside any of them. He'd always assumed they were simply abandoned and in disrepair, blighted structures that somehow avoided simply being demolished outright.

When Kiba opened the door to one of them, however, Issei was quite surprised to find the entrance the foyer was well-maintained. The wood had clearly been cleaned recently, and Issei couldn't find a single scratch on it.

"Didn't know these buildings still had power," Issei commented.

"They don't," Kiba said.

As Issei looked up, he realized that it was quite true – there were no light fixtures anywhere inside the room, and the windows were boarded over. Yet he had no difficulty seeing.

Issei remembered the night before last, and the dream. He remembered seeing so clearly in the dark.

He was becoming increasingly convinced that those things weren't nightmares. Or at least, the second one wasn't.

The first one still hurt just to think about.

Shaking his head, Issei followed Kiba up the stairs and down one of the doors on the balcony.

* * *

After several hallways, Issei found himself facing a large set of double doors.

"This is the meeting room of the Occult Research Club," Kiba said, attempting to be friendly and failing horribly to hide his fear.

"I see..."

The room was rather large, clearly having been a classroom at one point in its existence. Three couches were set out around three sides of a central, rectangular table, while on the one side without a couch, a large desk sat set with books and papers. A number of bookshelves were set along the walls, while the entire room was lit by the dying sun creeping in through an open window.

Issei was quite surprised to recognize the person seated on the couch.

The white-haired Koneko Toujou was snacking on a plate of some pastry or another. When he voiced a greeting, she looked at up at him, said a quick "Hello", and went back to her food.

At the very least, her facial features didn't appear frightened. Then again, they didn't appear to have any emotions in them at all.

"The new guy, huh?"

An unfamiliar voice made Issei look up once more.

At the window stood a boy with black hair, cut in a short, practical style. As he walked over, Issei noted the calm, yet friendly swagger of his posture. And as he drew closer, Issei was quite surprised by the look on his face.

He didn't appear afraid in the slightest.

"Don't worry, I won't bite," he said, his voice warm and friendly. "I'm Ryuji Kisaragi, the vice-president of the Occult Research Club."

"Issei Hyoudou," the brunette said. There wasn't much happiness in his tone.

"The president should be back fairly soon," Kiba said, taking a seat. "She just needs to finish up her phone call home. Just pick a spot on one of the couches and we can wait for her here. It shouldn't be more than a couple of minutes."

Issei nodded.

* * *

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Rias said as she sat down. "The phone call took a little longer than I thought it would."

Kiba had been right; it didn't take more than about two minutes before the red-haired beauty that was Rias Gremory had stepped in through another door and sat down at the desk. Yet even as she did so with practiced grace, Issei could see the fear in her eyes.

"Not a problem," Issei said.

"Anyway," Rias said, "let's get straight to the point, shall we? You remember, Issei, when I said I was a Devil this morning?"

Issei nodded.

"Well, I'm not the only one here," Rias said, waving her hand towards the rest of the club. "The other three are as well."

Issei's head snapped back and forth, taking in the faces of his fellow students in shock.

"And now, Issei Hyoudou, so are you."

Issei turned to look at her so fast he was mildly surprised that his vertebrae didn't dislocate. "Me? A Devil?"

Rias smiled. "Indeed you are, Issei."

Issei's eyes widened as what were unmistakably _wings_ tore loose from the backs of the four other students present. They weren't like the wings of Yuuma or the man who had speared him through. Both were black, but the strangers were like those of crows, feathered and filthy. These, on the other hand, were thin and bat-like.

As he looked at them, Issei became aware of a new sensation in his own torso. After a few seconds, he turned his head.

From his own back extended a pair of wings – ones identical to those protruding from his fellow students' flesh.

As Issei struggled to get his breathing under control, Rias spoke again. "I'm sure you've been wondering about the things that you've probably fobbed off as dreams – the man in the coat?"

"He was real, wasn't he?" Issei asked.

"Yes," Rias said. "As was everything else you've experienced. The man in the coat was what's known as a "Fallen Angel" - an Angel from Heaven who's been corrupted by their own sinful desires. They're called "the watchers of the children of God". In other words, the world's Sacred Gear possessors... or at least, they're supposed to be."

"Sacred Gear?" Issei asked dumbly.

Rias nodded. "Sacred Gear. They're tools created by God and fused with a human's soul at conception. They grant a human some power or powers. It's different for every Sacred Gear."

"Uh... why? Why'd God make these things?"

Rias shrugged. "No one's entirely sure. As I was saying, the Fallen Angels watch over Sacred Gear possessors – that includes you, Issei. You have one, and I realized it as soon as I found you. Remember this?" She picked up a slip of paper from the stack on her desk.

Issei blinked as he looked at it, recognized it. "That's... the paper I got from that girl before my date..."

It was emblazoned with a circle, drawn in a style that explicitly recalled the occult. Along the bottom was a line of text saying "Your wish can be granted!"

"That was my familiar, more than likely," Rias said. "I have her take human form and hand out fliers pretty often. She wasn't seeking out _you_ , specifically, just in case you're wondering. Just anyone who'd take one. I'll explain later, as we have something else to do."

"Which is?"

"Stand up for me, Issei. Take a few steps back."

Issei did so, growing more and more suspicious with every second that passed.

"Now then, Issei," Rias said once he'd stood, "I want you to shut your eyes, focus on the concept of power. Imagine pure strength. Think about where you feel strongest and concentrate on that area growing stronger."

Issei obeyed, despite not knowing why he was doing this. What, was this connected to this "Sacred Gear" he supposedly possessed?

The brunette stood there for several seconds, not sure exactly where felt strongest. His thoughts went to things he'd seen on television, to automobiles to the stars themselves, yet nothing happened.

Then, out of nowhere, he heard a voice that sounded awfully familiar, preceded by a raspy breath.

 _ **Behind the shoulder blades... is the most common...**_

Issei's eyes flew open. "Who said that?"

The other members of the club blinked at him, trying to stifle the nervousness in their faces.

"No one's said anything, Issei," Rias said, obviously confused.

Issei shook his head. "Must've been my imagination." He shut his eyes again after telling this lie.

In truth, Issei knew that voice. He'd been hearing what little it had said to him all day on repeat as he'd tried to discern its origins.

It was the voice from his dream, the one of being shrouded in darkness with an unseen creature aft and three silver lights fore.

The brunette shook his head as he wrenched his thoughts away from that dream. This wasn't the time or place to begin analyzing it yet again. Instead, he followed Rias' direction, focusing on the concept of power, this time focusing on his shoulder blades.

His skin began to prick, and Issei felt as though the room had just cooled several degrees, but still he did not open his eyes.

The light behind his eyelids dimmed as his brow furrowed harder and harder, every possible thought relating to power pranced through his mind. All sensation died as he focused on those thoughts to the exclusion of all else.

He was only barely aware of the slight gasps that came from his fellow students.

As he continued to focus, the sensation began to concentrate behind his shoulder blades, just as the mysterious voice claimed.

Thirty seconds passed. Forty. Fifty.

After almost precisely a full minute, Issei felt another sensation from his back, and the gasps he'd ignored before came much louder now.

"...my God..." he heard Ryuji murmur.

Issei's eyes snapped open. "What, what is it?"

Kiba's hand raised, pointing behind Issei. He said nothing.

Turning to follow the blonde's finger, Issei's eyes looked over his shoulder. What he saw there nearly caused his heart to stop.

Flowing out from his back was a pair of wings – but they were not the wings from before. Those had vanished.

The wings that had replaced them were not the spindly things from before. These were _huge_ , easily six feet long, and nearly as wide as his own torso was long. These wings were also somewhat bat-like, and along where the bones would have been in a bat's, there were numerous gems releasing a silver glow.

Issei gulped as he realized that they were identical to the glowing gems from his dream, and just what these appendages resembled.

"Rias... why do I have a pair of _dragon's wings growing from my back?!_ "

* * *

 _And cut._

 _I will eventually explain what's become of Akeno in a later chapter_.


	2. A Disastrous Introduction

_I do not own Highschool DxD_.

* * *

The brunette had turned his head as he'd shrieked those words, yet when his eyes came to rest on the crimson-haired Devil once more, she simply sat there, jaw agape.

" _Rias?!_ "

"I..." Rias said, total shock still evident in her tone. She got no further before Ryuji spoke.

"I think we know why you were targeted by the Fallen Angels, Issei..."

"Yes, now we know..." Rias said absently.

Issei reached out and pawed at the wings, finding them to be incredibly sturdy. "What the hell are these things!"

"They're-they're your Sacred Gear, Issei," Kiba said, trying to stay controlled and having more success than the President or the first-year across from him. His blonde head turned to look at Rias. "President... are those what I think they are?"

The crimson-haired Devil nodded slowly. "Yes... yes, it has to be, there's no mistaking it. It's the Apex Ruin..." Her speaking was hushed, almost awestruck.

"One of the top-tier Longinus?" Koneko said, her voice remaining admirably unemotional, though even in hers there was a hint of shock.

"The one that grants the ability to control and create darkness in the physical realm?" Rias asked. "Yes, that's the one."

"Longinus?" Issei demanded. "What the hell's going on, Rias?"

Rias put her hands up in a defensive pose. "J-just give me a moment, Issei, let me compose myself..." She took several deep breaths, laying her hands flat on the table and muttering something beneath her breath; Issei couldn't catch what it was.

After nearly thirty seconds, she nodded and faced him again. "My apologies, Issei," she said, her tone now under far better control. "The Sacred Gear you have... it's called "Apex Ruin". A Longinus."

"That term means nothing to me, Rias," Issei said, arms folded.

"Let me finish. They're... well, most Sacred Gears have multiple copies in the world, but the Longinus are different. There's only ever one in existence at any given time. Some are stronger than others – the "low-tier", as they're called, could kill deities at their strongest potential. The "high-tier" could go so far as to destroy the world in the wrong hands."

"How many of these things are there?" Issei asked, calming his own breaths very slowly.

"Fourteen, to my knowledge. Five are high-tier, nine are mid- or low-tier."

"And mine's totally unique?"

"Yes. No one else has that Sacred Gear – though given that you have it, it's no surprise that the Fallen Angels came after you. You're a threat to them just by having it."

"How?" Issei demanded.

Rias took a deep breath. "Like I said, Issei, the Apex Ruin grants you the ability to create and control shadows and darkness. Get strong enough and you could destroy everything those shadows touch instantly – though you're certainly nowhere near that level yet."

"Okay, but what's that got to do with the Fallen Angels?"

"I was getting to that. You see, Issei, we Devils are weak to light-based elements and "Holy" things – things associated with the Christian God. But the inverse holds true for the Angels and Fallen Angels. They're weak to anything demonic and to darkness-based elements. Light's far more common than darkness as an attack method, but yours is exceptionally strong."

"But I haven't done anything!" Issei exclaimed. "I wouldn't have hurt any of them!"

"They don't care," Ryuji said. "To them, that you have the potential to be a threat is reason enough to kill you."

"So then..." Issei said, the anger he'd repressed all day welling up, "...that date really did happen?"

"The one with Yuuma Amano?" Rias asked.

Issei blinked, stopping short. "You know her name?"

"Come here, Issei," Rias said, waving him forwards.

Issei obeyed.

Rias' hand moved from the table, her fingers sliding under the desk. With a single _click_ , she slid open one of the desk's drawers and withdrew an item. As she held it up, Issei saw that it was a photograph.

"This person look familiar?"

She handed the photograph to him.

Upon Issei turning the photograph over and taking a good look at it, his heart began to pound and his breathing became ragged. Horror filled his mind as the first dream of the sequence came back in full force, every detail passing through his mind at once. The confession, the preparation, the date, the sunset, the wings, the spear, Yuuma's final insults.

 _You're such a little fool... it's almost cute! But you're a threat, so Azazel said I had to get rid of you. If you want to hate someone, hate God. After all, he gave you the Sacred Gear! Your stupidity, though... no, that's all you, you little shit. Bye-bye, Issei Hyoudou!_

As the words played back in Issei's brain, parading through with their mockery, his eyes watered at their corners.

For the picture in his hand? It was an image of Yuuma... with his laughing countenance right next to hers.

There was pain, of course. The physical pain of her skewering him with that impossible spear, the one composed of light. The emotional pain of her betrayal, the hurt of the words she spoke to him. Her casual revealing of the fact that she'd never cared for him at all.

But there was another emotion, one that had been building from the moment the day started. One that had welled up just minutes earlier. It came again, now, building to a degree he could no longer restrain. Yet it wasn't the memory of Yuuma that broke that seal.

As Issei's emotions had begun to spiral into a torrent, his body had started to shake, growing increasingly violent with every passing second.

Rias was about to take the picture back from him when he crumpled it in his fist.

"You _knew_ ," Issei spat, hatefully glaring through Rias' eyes. "You all fucking _knew_. You _knew_ what she was and you didn't do a damn thing! You _let it happen!_ "

Rather shocked at the sudden outburst, Rias barely had time to catch the crumpled picture as Issei threw it back in her face.

"Issei," she said, "calm down."

"Why the hell should I!" Issei shouted back.

"Besides the fact that I told you to," Rias said, a hint of authority creeping into her voice, "yelling and screaming isn't conducive to open communication."

"And I care about what you tell me to do _why_ , again?"

Rias took a slow, deep breath, obviously trying to keep completely calm. "Because I am your King, Issei, and you are my servant."

"What if I don't recognize your authority? Why the hell should you get to be in charge of me?"

"That's irrelevant, Issei," Rias said. "You don't get to choose whether or not to recognize authority – whether you like or not, I am your King, and I will _not_ accept your current tone."

"Or you'll do what, exactly?"

"Let's just say that, among other things, I _will_ employ corporal punishment."

Issei clenched his teeth as he looked around and saw no one else on his side. And seeing that, he suppressed the anger.

But even as they spoke, it continued to burn.

"Now then," Rias said, "let me explain what I need you to do a little further." She picked up one of the leaflets from her desk and held it up. "It's pretty simple – just go hand these out to anyone who wants one."

"Why?"

"That way anyone who's interested in the services we can provide them – things like cooking, cleaning, just listening to their problems, helping them with work or a whole host of other things – can summon us." She tried to force a smile. "If you do well at that, Issei... you may get to have some servants of your own one day. A slow process, sure, but it's a method."

"What if I don't want any servants?"

Rias leaned back in her chair. "Then you've still got grand prospects for power, rank, respect, wealth...all these things and more can be yours if you rank up. You're only a low-class Devil now, but once you reach high-class, a whole _world_ of options opens up."

"Does that include not being your servant?"

Rias shook her head. "You'll always be one of my servants, Issei. That's permanent."

"And if I just walk away from you?" Issei asked.

Before Rias could reply, Ryuji suddenly spoke up from the side. "If you enjoy living, Issei, I wouldn't recommend that."

Issei's head snapped to look at the black-haired first year. "What do you mean by that?"

"If you run away, Issei, you'll get declared as a "Stray Devil". You'll be hunted by everybody – Angels, Fallen Angels, Devils, every bit of the supernatural world and the church. The average lifespan of one is about three weeks."

The brunette's eye twitched and the anger threatened to explode once more, yet in a monumental display of self-control, Issei did not lose his temper. He could not, however, resist a single blast of sarcasm. "So becoming high-class doesn't actually confer any benefits I want and I'll be killed if I don't play along. Hope you're not expecting a thank you, because you're not getting one." Without letting her answer, he snatched the leaflets off of Rias' desk. "You wanted me to pass these out, you said?"

Rias swallowed, then nodded. "Yes, Issei. Though... I'd recommend you hide your Sacred Gear before you start doing that..."

Issei blinked, head turning to look at the black dragon wings that still extended from his back. In his anger, he'd all but forgotten they were even there. Even as he looked at them, however, he could feel his heart begin to thud faster once more.

"How?"

"Well... do the opposite of what you did before," Rias said.

"That doesn't help."

Unbeknownst to Rias, Issei's words weren't actually directed at her; he'd quickly figured out that she knew very little about this "Sacred Gear" that he didn't. Instead, he tried to draw out the unseen speaker.

 _ **Wish for their disappearance...**_

Issei's brow furrowed as his small trick paid its dividend. His focus switched to the wings in his back, on his desire for them to disappear.

Sure enough, the wings began to recede into the flesh of his back with sensation that distinctly reminded Issei of ice cream slurped through a straw. He shivered slightly as the claw-like tips of the wings vanished into the skin without the slightest hint of a gap in the epidermis.

Rias nodded. "Now then, before you go pass out the fliers, I really ought to finish up what I was explaining before. A bit of a history lesson."

"Which was?"

"As I was getting to saying, there are Three Factions. One – the Devils to which you now belong – are the native beings of a dimension you call Hell. The second – the Angels of Heaven as it relates to Christianity – dwelled... well, where else? Heaven. We lived more-or-less apart from one another. But then, some Angels fell from grace, and became Fallen Angels. As you already know, they're the ones who attacked you."

"And?" Issei asked, eyebrow raised in annoyance.

"I was getting to that. The Fallen, naturally, couldn't stay in Heaven. But when they came to Hell, they were unwanted interlopers, and battles began to rage between them and the Devils who called the Underworld home. Inevitably, these conflicts began to spill into the human world as well, which resulted in Heaven's Angels getting pulled in, creating a three-way war."

Issei nodded, not particularly interested but figuring that it would get her to shut up more quickly.

"That war raged on and on for over a millennium, killing untold numbers on all sides and those who allied with them. It actually began to draw the rest of the world's mythologies in – myths had to pick sides or they'd be marked as a target by others. It was a very ugly time. Ultimately, the war cost so many lives that we were forced into something like an armistice. Though..." Her eyes turned dark. "That hasn't stopped the church from continuously attacking the Devils and Fallen Angels with Heaven's blessings – both figurative and literal. Exorcists – that's what their warriors are called – attack Devils... more or less wherever they find them with weapons that employ those things. Swords of light, holy water, everything that could possibly be blessed."

"And that's if you're lucky," Koneko said, speaking for the first time since Issei had arrived.

Ryuji nodded, hands folding behind his head. "Then there's the Sacred Gear users among their number. Some are just supplemental abilities, but the ones that aren't... oh boy. Especially the "Strongest Exorcist" and the Evil Dragon possessors..."

"Evil Dragon possessors?" Issei asked, curiosity piqued by that title. He wasn't surprised that dragons existed; after all, he'd had a pair of dragon wings sticking out of his back not too long before.

"Possessors of Sacred Gears with Evil Dragons sealed inside them," Kiba said. "Evil Dragons are basically dragons who've... broken, in a sense. They're crazy. Totally focused on killing."

The voice gave a single derisive snort. Issei did not comment or show any sign of it.

"No one's entirely sure how," Rias explained, "but most of the famous Evil Dragons came to be sealed inside Sacred Gears like yours, Issei. And like we said, the church has Evil Dragon possessors in their employ. At one point, they had the possessor of _your_ Sacred Gear, Issei."

"I see," Issei said. "And I suppose these exorcists are all insanely strong?"

"They've all slain the strongest classes of Devils on their lonesome. So yes, they're incredibly dangerous. If you ever encounter them, just _run_. Really, until you get some combat experience and train your Sacred Gear, that goes for all exorcists. They've been trained in combat from a young age. I'd guess that you never have at all." She put a hand up. "I don't intend that as a snipe against you. You didn't have reason to. Just realize that experience beats out power ninety-nine times out of a hundred." She nodded towards the leaflets in Issei's hands. "Well then, that's enough history for tonight." She looked to the window, towards the setting sun. "Might as well get to it before it gets _too_ dark."

Still quietly seething but also somewhat intrigued, Issei turned and left the club room.

* * *

Once he'd left, Rias finally felt the malicious air leave the room, and she breathing freely once more. Her heart's thuds began to slow back to normal, and only when they had and the fear left her brain did she realize what had happened.

"...that was a complete disaster of a first meeting, wasn't it?" Rias said, leaning back in her chair and looking at the ceiling.

"I'd say so, President," Ryuji said. "Though I can't blame you, given what that aura's like."

"You felt it too?" Rias asked, looking over at the black-haired boy.

He nodded back in turn. "I certainly did, President. That aura's draconic in origin."

"Explains why you were able to ignore it," Koneko said, taking a bite of her next pastry. Her stoic exterior had hid her feelings, but she felt the same way her own president had.

Ryuji smirked. "Coming from a family of dragon hunters certainly helps."

"I assume you won't be trying to hunt my newly-chosen Queen," Rias said, her lips cracking in a slight smile for a fraction of a moment.

Ryuji shook his head, frowning as he did so. He looked at Kiba. "So then, Kiba, what are your thoughts? I didn't expect you to be this reserved. You're usually the first one to defend Rias out of all of us."

Kiba bit his lip. "I... I don't understand that fear he causes. Sure, I was angry at him, President, but... I was afraid, too." He shook his head, an irritated look coming over his face. "Though that doesn't excuse his ungratefulness. You saved his life, President. I just don't think Issei realizes how much he owes you yet."

A slight chirp drew the three Devil's attentions back towards Ryuji momentarily, only for them to slightly grin at the sight of the white dragon seated on his thigh and nuzzling him.

Yet even as she sat there, Rias began to realize just _how_ badly that meeting had gone. Never had she had one of her servants simply go berserk the way Issei had. And Rias knew that she had to make amends with him quickly, before he decided to turn the Apex Ruin on _her_.

* * *

The process of handing out leaflets was far easier said than done. When Issei had left the Occult Research Club building, he'd been angry, yes. But he'd also been interested in these so-called "Evil Dragons", and what that might imply about the world he thought he knew. For the first time that day, his thoughts had been off whatever it was that was rendering everybody and their mother terrified of him.

He was reminded in full force the moment he started handing fliers out. Most people took it the way most would handle a hungry tiger – that is to say, they didn't. The few who did took the paper and practically ran from him. It was obvious absolutely everyone wanted to be away from him. After nearly an hour of handing out leaflets, he'd only given away perhaps three dozen, and his bag was still nearly full.

Eventually, he began to resort to the simple tactic of shoving one in every mailbox and letterbox he possibly could, which finally began to make real dents in the stack in his bag. Yet even after another hour, he still had numerous fliers to hand out, and the sun was well past down.

As he took a seat on a park bench, he flipped open his phone. It was past seven in the evening, and his mother was probably wondering where he was. She'd be getting dinner ready soon.

He looked down at the backpack full of fliers, then back to his phone.

And he decided that he'd rather be eating dinner with his family that outside after dark passing fliers out.

He went home.

* * *

Dinner, however, didn't go any better than breakfast had. The food was as good as it had ever been, but his parents were still terrified. They still tried to be warm, bless their hearts, but it was so obviously forced that he'd have preferred if they'd said nothing at all. Even when Issei offered to clear the table and do the dishes, his mother had hurriedly said that she would do them and that there was no need for Issei to trouble himself with them.

After dinner, Issei crawled back up to his room and splayed out on the bed in the dark, letting the day's events turn over and over in his mind.

He was a Devil now, and a slave to a woman who would've probably left him to die if he hadn't had this "Longinus" or whatever. And he'd been murdered because of something he had no idea he had even had because these "Fallen Angels" were afraid of what he would never do with it.

Even as he lay there, he felt the anger begin to swell in his chest once more, and he mentally amended that statement.

What he never _would have_ done with it.

Now?

His teeth clenched so hard that his jaw began to hurt. Now? He wanted to hurt them. Kill them. Make them suffer as they'd made him suffer.

 _What the hell am I thinking?_

Issei bolted upright as that thought went through his head, horror racing through his mind.

No matter how they'd wronged him, it wasn't right to want to _kill_ them!

 _ **You are wrong...**_

Issei looked this way and that, observing the door was shut and the windows were shut. Satisfied that they were...

"Who the hell are you?"

There was no answer.

"I asked a question," Issei snapped. "Yeah, you, voice in my head. Who or what are you? What the hell are you doing in my head?"

Silence.

"Are you gonna answer or just keep giving me the silent treatment? You don't seem to have any problem interjecting when I don't want it. Just tell me who you are. Seriously, that's all I want."

It took several more seconds, but there eventually came another snort, much the same as the one he'd heard before.

 _ **Fall to slumber...**_

Issei gave an annoyed shake of his head, but his eyelids did indeed feel rather heavy. He supposed that it was just the length of the day and the exhaustion it naturally induced. Constantly being looked at as though you were about to murder someone was rather tiring.

After dressing for bed, he fell asleep.

* * *

Issei's eyelids snapped open, and at first he thought he'd simply woken from a sleep, deep and dreamless.

Yet when he looked around, he found that he wasn't in bed. He would've been able to see the entire room if that were the case, and he'd have been lying on his bed.

As he stood, he looked around. Unlike the first time around, he wasn't nearly as frightened. He knew what was here. Or, at the very least, had a better idea than last time.

Was this what the voice had meant by "fall to slumber"?

"Hey!" Issei shouted to the infinite dark. "I know you're here and that you can hear me! Tell me who the hell you are and what's going on! _Answer me_!"

 **"Behind you."**

Sure enough, when Issei whipped around, he saw the same three lights. Each emitted a silver glow, yet Issei hadn't noticed them before for the lack of anything to reflect it off of. This time, he felt no fear, instead stepping forward towards the light.

The lights slid backwards, before moving above his head.

"Show yourself!" Issei yelled.

 **"A rather aggressive demeanor."**

" _Show yourself_ , you coward! Stop hiding in the dark!"

 **"You would see me, then? You would face the sight, the embodiment? You would know the form of this concept?"**

"Yeah, I would. Now show me what you look like."

A dry, booming and raspy laugh echoed all around Issei. **"If that be your desire, it can be granted, Issei Hyoudou."**

"Then get granting."

A snort. **"If you should so insist."**

It was then, out of the corner of Issei's eye, that he saw a single new light appear. He turned to look.

It was a glowing silver gem, a larger version of the three that hung above him, facing downwards towards him in midair.

Then another one lit, further along. Then another, and another and another. Making its way around him in a roughly circular arrangement, Issei watched as dozens of silver gems begin to illuminate the dark around them.

 **"My greetings to you, Issei Hyoudou."**

Issei's turned to follow as the gems suddenly began to ascend skyward, coming to a stop a few meters from the trio that faced down towards him.

Then, in a fashion Issei could only describe as "tidal", the darkness itself began to recede.

Issei's jaw fell open at what it revealed.

The three gems that faced downwards towards him were no gems at all, but _eyes_ , observing him with what was unmistakably hunger. Fluids dripped from the jaw, the silver light reflecting off of equally silver teeth revealed by snarling lips. Issei stumbled backwards, true and absolute terror washing through him as he took in the sight of the enormous beast's head.

Then, its mouth began to move, and Issei heard its booming voice tear through his ears.

 **"I am Apophis, the** _ **Eclipse Dragon**_ **."**

* * *

 _And cut._

 _Before we go on, I ought to clear something up – Apophis as he exists here is not the same Apophis that exists in canon. He's_ _ **based**_ _on the one in canon, but he's ultimately his own character._


	3. Beginnings of Rebirth

_I do not own Highschool DxD_.

* * *

As the dragon's enormous head began to close the distance to Issei, the brunette tried to move backwards. As he took the step, he tripped and fell flat on his back, and before he could try to scrabble away, the so-called "Eclipse Dragon" had placed its head a mere foot or so from Issei's chest. Issei could feel the fluids dripping from Apophis' mouth striking his shirt, each wet _slap_ leaving the brunette feeling as though that bit of fabric and skin had been thrown in a freezer for a week. Yet Issei found that rather easy to ignore, courtesy of the titanic silver eyes that stared at him with that same hunger as before.

Issei tried to speak, but no words came out, and the dragon that called itself Apophis did not let him stutter for but a moment before his booming voice drowned out all thoughts.

 **"Five months, two weeks."**

"...what...?" Issei finally choked out, having no idea what this declaration was about and not caring.

The dragon's lips pulled back, revealing its massive maw of teeth and sending Issei into a near-panic attack. **"A favored hobby of mine, boy – I do so enjoy making conjecture of my host's lifespans."** One of the eyes suddenly closed and opened again, and only later did Issei realize that the dragon had winked at him. **"You needn't fret for my presumption. A score and eight suppositions have passed and my hypotheses have yet to be correct even a single time."**

Issei's fists clenched against the blackness upon which he lay, and the familiar anger began to manifest in his brain again. "What makes you think I'll be dead in five months?"

 **"Allow me an amending of that prediction.** _ **Three**_ **months, two weeks."**

"The question stands." The fear was beginning to fade and Issei was rapidly becoming annoyed with this dragon that seemed to think itself a comedian.

 **"Many stronger than you have fallen before that time. Possess you the mental fortitude to endure my curse, when your flesh lacks the mettle to employ my strengths?"**

"If you could stop talking in riddles and let me stand up, I'd appreciate it."

Apophis snorted, but he withdrew. Issei got to his feet slowly, wiping at the frigid saliva that had stained his clothes and skin.

"Thank you."

The dragon didn't acknowledge the words before continuing on. **"I should think you do not possess this thing, when you lack even the will to allow your rage."**

"What the hell are you talking about?"

 **"You berated yourself for the natural desire to exact vengeance against those who have wronged you. You foolishly believe this to not be the natural course."**

"What if I don't think it'll solve anything?"

 **"Will it not bring you the closure you seek? Would it not send a powerful message, that you are not to be trifled with, and that you will annihilate all who dare?"**

"That's just going to drag other people into it!"

 **"And when one has slain enough, others will view you as one with whom to not trifle, and will cease their assaults."**

"When they're too afraid to, you mean."

 **"Precisely. It is a very good thing to be feared, Issei Hyoudou."**

"Maybe to you. I've had one day of that and I'm already sick of it. I prefer it when people like me and want to be around me."

A derisive snort spat from Apophis' maw. **"To others, your only purpose in existence is the Longinus sealed within your soul. They seek only to use, not to befriend. You have seen this in the arrogance of the Devil who has yet enslaved you. She cares nothing for you, Issei Hyoudou. She only wishes to exploit you for her own gain. Will you let that stand? Will you allow yourself to be treated as a tool to be abused by others, then thrown away when you are of no further use?"**

"Doesn't mean I want to rip them apart."

 **"You deny yourself your feelings of rage – yet what is anger for, if not to respond to when one has been done wrong by another? To grant the strength to demand the pound of flesh and blood with which your hate will be sated?"**

Issei shook his head. "I don't see it that way."

 **"Your soul is weakened by the delusion of kindness. An Evil Dragon has no need for such useless emotions."**

"Maybe you don't. I'm guessing you're one of the "Evil Dragons" Rias mentioned?"

 **"You are wrong, but I cannot force this understanding. Only reality possesses that capacity."** Apophis' tone changed then, switching from the kind of encouraging anger one employs to whip others into a frenzy into a more neutral inflection. **"In response to your second question, I am indeed an Evil Dragon – though I possess a notch more nuance than described by the spoiled princess who calls you her own. By possession of this prison, you are one yourself."**

"Maybe by your definition," Issei said, shaking his head again. "But not by mine." Issei rubbed his face with his hands a moment, letting himself take in what exactly was going on. "So you're sealed up in this "Sacred Gear" of mine?"

 **"Unfortunately."**

"How'd that even happen?"

A snort exited Apophis. **"Irrelevant. What is relevant is your own weakness – that, or incompatibility."**

"What do you mean 'weak'?" Issei snapped. "I know I'm not in that great of shape, but straight-out _weak_?"

 **"Perhaps if you would have been so kind as to hear the concluding words of my statement, then your offense might die where it stands now. As I stated, the Apex Ruin might itself simply possess poor compatibility with your own flesh. Regardless of which is true, it shall not grant you the stated capability with your body's current state – a sorry state for powers that once slew Gods and Buddhas with the ease they slew men."** At that moment, Apophis lips pulled back in an unsettling imitation of a smile. As Issei looked on, becoming rather shocked by what the dragon's words implied, Apophis spoke once more.

 **"Fortunately for efficiency's sake, I possess a simple solution."** With that, the Eclipse Dragon's immense jaw split open, and from his throat spewed what could only be described as a torrent of darkness. It blotted out the gems on Apophis' body as it collected into a massive sphere. Then, the sphere split in half and changed shape once more, becoming two long objects with -

 _Oh God_.

Two colossal black spears hung in the air in front of Issei, and almost immediately the date with Raynare came back to the forefront of his brain. Yet just as he was about to move, he felt his legs grow very, very cold. Eyes snapping downwards, he screamed.

Surrounding his legs were a pair of shadowy casings – and when Issei tried to kick at them to free himself, he might as well have kicked the side of a mountain.

He looked up just in time to see the two spears impale him through the chest.

For one second, he felt that blinding, indescribable pain again.

* * *

Issei bolted upwards in bed, drenched in sweat and panting as though he'd just run a marathon. The terror he'd felt was still there, and he could still feel phantom traces of that brief second of agony.

As he sat there in bed, his eyes flitted about, as though attempting to establish that it had all been a nightmare and that nothing had actually happened to him in the real world. Yet even as he did this, Issei was also fully aware that what had just happened had been far too vivid to be a nightmare.

He had really been somewhere in his subconscious. He really had been talking with a dragon that called itself Apophis.

This fact was confirmed only a moment after when the pain began to radiate through his chest, and Issei began coughing. At first, it was a minor sting, but the discomfort grew worse with every passing second. And when the nerves in Issei's fist responded, he felt a wet substance sliding over them.

As he stumbled to the bathroom, the coughing grew worse and the liquid continued to build up on Issei's hands. Hacking badly enough to bring tears to his eyes, Issei finally managed to stagger into the bathroom and, by some miracle, find the light switch and shut the door. The pain in his chest was nearly unbearable now.

Almost immediately, he saw that his hands were covered in a crimson liquid, but in his current state it took a few seconds to realize what it was. But when he did, he could barely suppress a scream through the coughs at the sight of his own blood coating his hands.

Yet still the coughing continued, and Issei found himself hunched over the sink. As he coughed, he could see splatters of blood appearing on the porcelain of the sink. At the same time, the pain in his torso pulsed more and more painfully until Issei could barely hold back cries that would surely have awoken his parents. That he held in the wail was testament to his desire to keep his parents ignorant; he wanted his parents to know _nothing_. He wasn't sure why, but he was absolutely certain that his parents knowing about his being a Devil would only worsen things for him.

It took nearly ten minutes before the pain began to subside and the coughing stopped. Issei was in tears from both the coughing and pain by this point, his skin flecked with sweat. Through the tears, he could see a sink completely soaked in his blood.

Issei knew full well that he'd need to clean it up before his parents discovered it, but for a few moments, he simply sank to the floor. After a moment's motionlessness, he noticed something odd.

He could feel his own heartbeat – not in the sort of weak thud one feels during the height of an adrenaline rush, either. No, Issei could feel the sharp, distinct notes of his heart pounding away within his chest.

"What the fuck was that, Apophis?"

Issei gave it no more than half an instant of silence before he continued spitting at him. "Don't you fucking dare give me the silent treatment, you piece of shit. What the _fuck_ did you just do to me?"

 _ **Vulgar...**_

"Answer me. _Now_."

 _ **As I stated, I have forced the Apex Ruin to activate its abilities. They laid dormant before.**_

"And just how the fuck did you do that? Why the fuck did it involve me coughing up blood?"

 _ **Naught of significance. Merely replaced your flesh with mine own. The process of adaptation within the new body often causes minor pain and insignificant blood loss.**_

" _What?!_ You call that _insignificant_?! You didn't even fucking ask me and now you control-"

 _ **I do nothing of the sort. My flesh is under the command of your brain. I possess no capability to seize control of it, nor do I possess any desire to do so.**_

"And just what the hell _did_ you replace, huh?" Issei hissed.

 _ **Your heart and lungs. They should function far more efficiently than your own ever did, and you will possess far greater stamina for it.**_

"And what if I didn't _want_ my flesh replaced, huh?"

 _ **Then I shall replace no more of it if you do not wish it. As I state, the Apex Ruin is now active. If you wish to address me with something resembling reasonableness and calm, I am perfectly willing to speak. Farewell for now, Issei Hyoudou.**_

Apophis fell silent after that, and no words roused another response from the so-called "Eclipse Dragon". After a few minutes more of trying, Issei gave up trying. Slowly pulling himself to his feet, he finally looked himself in the eye in the bathroom mirror.

His nightshirt was probably ruined – the white fabric was stained through with bits of blood that had flown from Issei's mouth, and Issei severely doubted any bleach would remove them. Issei shook his head in frustration, but after a moment accepted it.

Instead, he opened up the storage area beneath the sink and retrieved a role of paper towels and disinfectant. He knew he should probably be using something stronger, but the yellow fluid was the strongest thing the brunette had on hand, and Issei refused to take any chances of his parents finding it.

Twenty minutes later, the brunette was back in bed, this time without a shirt. Sleep, however, was hard to come by.

* * *

It was a brutal sound to hear when the buzzer went off. Issei had no desire to get out of bed, both from sleepiness and the desire to not deal with Rias Gremory – or Apophis, for that matter.

Yet ultimately, his own ingrained instincts and obligations won out, and Issei forced himself through another uncomfortable breakfast with his parents. The fear, at the very least, did seem to be less now than it had been yesterday, but that wasn't saying much.

Issei's own fear ratcheted up several notches _after_ breakfast, when he realized what was missing from his backpack.

In his own frustration and exhaustion the previous day, the brunette had completely forgotten that he'd left his notebooks and school items in the ORC club room, having left them to take the bag with the fliers. He knew he would need those items, even if he wouldn't have any of his homework from the previous day done.

And of course, if he went to the club room, he might well have to deal with Rias.

Seeing no way out, Issei hid the remaining fliers beneath his sheets and set out to the ORC club room.

* * *

Issei was genuinely surprised by the time he arrived at the school. It wasn't because he'd encountered anything of particular surprise or shock along the way. No, instead, it was because he was not only certain that he'd set some kind of running speed record for himself, he also didn't feel the slightest bit winded by the time he arrived.

 _Guess he was telling the truth_...

Nevertheless, Issei didn't stop when he reached the school, jogging all the way to the abandoned school building.

* * *

When Issei had walked into the old school building, he'd dearly hoped that no one would be home. He'd foolishly believed that perhaps the other members of the club would be at their classes or in transit to them. He hadn't considered that classes wouldn't actually be starting for nearly forty-five minutes – so when the door opened, he was greeted by the absolute last person he wanted to see.

Rias Gremory attempted to appear slightly amused – the key word being _attempted_. The fear was still evident in her words and mannerisms. The whole facade she attempted to put on came off as extremely forced as a result of it, to the point that Issei wished she wouldn't bother.

"Looking for that?" the crimson-haired Devil asked in a tone that was probably trying to sound playfully scolding. Her slightly shaking hand was pointed to his bag, which was set neatly on the table between the couches in the club room.

"Yes," Issei said bluntly. He was in no mood to play her games, and disinterestedly dropped the bag with which he'd held the fliers on the couch. When he attempted to leave, however, he found Rias blocking the door.

"Could you move? I need to get to class."

To her credit, Rias looked into his eyes with her next words despite her own being filled with fear. "Issei, I... I'm sorry about yesterday. I was... too forceful. Could we possibly start over? As a club, I mean?"

"No," Issei snapped. After the night he'd just had, Issei was in absolutely no mood to even consider her words.

"Issei, please," Rias said, her tone sounding a little desperate. She attempted to take Issei's hand in hers, but Issei immediately tore his limb loose. "Issei, I'm _trying_ to apologize!"

"Empty words. Get out of my way."

"Issei, I'm sorry that what happened to you happened-"

"You're half the reason it did," Issei snarled. His anger was rising again. His conscious mind knew that the last thing he needed was to get into a fight with Rias before school, as he was sure he'd suffer for it later. Yet he couldn't keep his mouth from moving. "And then you enslave me and force me to do your errands for hours at night, keeping me from my family and my actual life."

"If your parents are asking too many questions, Issei, I can easily alter their memories-" Rias cut herself off partway, having evidently realized that this was _exactly_ the wrong thing to say to Issei. Unfortunately, she realized this a few words too late.

Issei's face twisted in rage, and it was all he could do to keep himself from trying to deck the crimson-haired Devil right then and there. "Stay the _fuck_ away from my parents," he hissed. "Do anything to them and I'll tear your fucking head off. You've got _no_ right to mess with them. Now get out of my way. I have class."

While her expression turned hurt and angry, Rias did move aside.

* * *

 _And cut._

 _Yes, Apophis is meant to come across as rather vicious and amoral. I don't think it's that strange that Issei and Apophis would have very different views on things - one's a modern teenager, the other is a dragon thousands of years old. And yes, I fully understand that Issei's ethics seem a bit contradictory in this chapter - I'll explain that in a bit._

 _Yes, I do see immense ethical and moral issues with on-the-fly alteration of someone's memories, ones not justifiable by the "greater good" or some such. If you disagree, I don't care. Good night._


	4. What Hides Within

_**And you never explained what happened to Akeno**_

 _You're right, I didn't. I said "in a future chapter". That means "a chapter that will be posted at some point",_ _ **not**_ _"the next chapter"._

 _I do not own Highschool DxD._

* * *

As Issei stormed out of the Occult Research Club building, he could hear Apophis' derisive snort in his mind.

 _ **You claim to not seek violence, yet you threaten it at the first inconvenience. We bear greater similarity than you wish to believe, Issei Hyoudou.**_

"Big difference there," Issei muttered. "Hurting _me_ I might forgive. Screw with anybody I care about and all bets are off."

 _ **That, then, is your poor attempt at justification?**_

"Don't see what's so poor about it," Issei said.

 _ **One only seeks revenge for one's own sake. Telling oneself that it is sought on behalf of another is an attempt to sanitize this thought process. It would bring no satisfaction if it were not for one's own peace of mind. Better to shed the fabrication and allow honesty to take hold. As I have said, there is no shame in seeking vengeance.**_

Issei didn't have a prepared response to that, and said nothing as he entered the school. As they had the day before, the other students shrank back from him and stared at him with open fear in their eyes. And Issei absolutely hated it.

"Apophis, why do they do that?" Issei muttered, quiet enough that no other students could hear him and start wondering if he'd gone crazy.

 _ **Define the terms more precisely. Declare who it is to which you refer and what action they perform.**_

Issei sighed and clenched his teeth. "'They' is basically everybody except Ryuji at the ORC, and 'what' is how they look at me."

 _ **They appear frightened?**_

"Yeah."

 _ **No more than a side effect of the Apex Ruin's awakening. You now emit a frightening aura that draws out the primal terror of the end of one's life.**_

"They're afraid I'm going to kill them, basically?"

 _ **A rough translation.**_

Issei shook his head and rubbed at his forehead. "Any way to shut it off?"

 _ **No.**_

That was all Apophis would say on the subject, and any attempt to inquire further was simply given blunt, terse responses in the negative.

After the bell rang, Issei stopped bothering.

* * *

When Issei returned to the ORC building that afternoon (Rias had, rather annoyingly, sent Kiba to drag him there by force), Rias didn't even reference what had happened between them that morning.

Instead, she'd simply started talking again.

"Issei," she said, attempting to sound jovial and friendly but still failing, "I've got some news for you."

"What's that?" Issei asked, with absolutely no anticipation in his voice.

"I've decided that we ought to find you a familiar this next full moon."

Issei remembered that the moon was currently a waning crescent. "Why?"

"Well, most Devils have one," Rias said. She held a palm out, and on it, a glowing circle took shape, set with a bizarre symbol.

Issei's eyes went wide. "What the hell? What is that?"

"It's a simple magic circle," Rias quickly explained. "This is one of many, _many_ variants. Every Devil family has one of their own. This, for instance, is a transportation and summoning circle. Once you've gotten yourself a familiar, I'll teach you how to do it."

If Issei's eyes had been wide before, they became the size of dinner plates when he saw what happened next.

Within the center of the glowing circle, a small, four-legged bat-like creature appeared in a tiny flicker of light. The creature promptly jumped on Rias' shoulder and started nuzzling her, and Rias' paper smile became somewhat more genuine.

"Familiars are a lot like pets, in some ways," the crimson-haired Devil said as she scratched the little bat's head.

"A lot more useful, though," Kiba said. Issei turned to see a white bird seated on one of the blonde's hands. "You can get them to do all sorts of things for you."

A mewling sound drew Issei's attention to Koneko, who sat as quietly as ever; Issei found himself forgetting she was even there most of the time. In her arms was a white cat, a collar with a bell around its neck. Even as he watched, the cat moved to take a seat on Koneko's head, where it promptly fell asleep.

"Best part, though, is just _what_ kinds of creatures you can take as familiars."

It was Ryuji who'd spoken, and what Issei saw when he looked over at the vice-president confused him quite a bit.

The creature that stood on Ryuji's outstretched arm was clearly some sort of dragon if Apophis' example was anything to go by. In opposition to Apophis, however, this dragon was a beautiful ivory. Near the back and front of its serpentine body, there were a pair of feet that helped it cling to Ryuji's arm, its body nearly as long as the limb on which it stood. Along its back ran numerous wings very much like those of birds, each and every feather as white as its scales.

Most striking, however, was the yellow-orange halo that hung above its head.

Issei had seen works of art depicting mythical figure before, illustrated onto canvas by many people in various forms, and they often included such features. Unlike the ones Issei had seen in art, however, this halo was far more decorative – the halo was not just a thin ring of light or a colored circle. Instead, it was an elaborate symmetrical design, with a highly decorated core and a pair of wing-like structures spreading off of the center.

The dragon was, in short, a beautiful creature.

It would have been quite a bit more so if it wasn't staring at Issei with undisguised hostility. Even as Issei watched, its mouth snapped open and it hissed at him, revealing a mouth full of small but no doubt razor-sharp teeth, glaring at him with piercing blue eyes.

"Hey," Ryuji said sternly to the dragon sitting on his arm. "Mizar, be nice."

The dragon almost immediately shrunk down as it looked back towards Ryuji, before crawling down into its master's lap and curling its snake-like body up. It kept its eyes on Issei the entire time.

"Sorry," Ryuji said, shaking his head. "I've never seen her act like this. She's usually pretty nice to strangers, and indifferent at worst."

"Not a problem," Issei said. His anger had left him as he'd looked the dragon called 'Mizar' over. "What _is_ she exactly? I mean, I can tell she's some kind of dragon, but..."

"She's what's called a 'Celestial Dragon'," Ryuji explained. Gently scratching the small dragon's head, he smiled. "They're thought to be a good omen."

Issei nodded, then turned to Rias and promptly felt his irritation begin to creep back into his mind as he remembered what Rias wanted him to do. But this time, he forced it down with a deep sigh.

"So then, where are the fliers?"

* * *

Issei passed out the fliers with even greater speed than he had the night prior, emptying the bag within two hours. Even Rias was surprised at his pace.

Unbeknownst to her, Issei took a large stack and delivered them to his own house, intending to burn them later.

Once he'd dumped the bag off, he simply left. He didn't bother asking permission, nor did Rias attempt to stop him.

He left a conversation in his wake.

* * *

"Why'd you let him get away with it, President?" Kiba asked.

"With what?" Rias replied, looking up from the homework assignment she was doing.

"With what he said to you yesterday."

Rias laced her fingers together underneath her chin. "I think, honestly, that he's just angry and that he'll cool off soon enough. No point in making a major deal over a poor initial adjustment. I'm not particularly harsh, am I?"

Kiba didn't get a chance to answer, however, before Ryuji spoke up.

"President, I'm not so sure it's 'harshness' that he's concerned about."

Rias turned to look at the vice-president. "What do you mean?"

"I think it's more just anger in general. Towards us and towards the Fallen Angels, too. How would you feel if you got killed off because you're perceived to be a threat for something you didn't even know you had? And that people around you knew that your attacker was there and didn't stop them?"

"Ryuji, don't start this again-"

"I'm still telling you, Rias, we should have killed that Fallen Angel when we had the chance."

"We've already had this discussion, Ryuji. Drop it. Don't you have a client to get to?"

The Knight shrugged. "I guess so." After dismissing Mizar, he stood and formed a magic circle under his feet. A moment later, he'd vanished, no doubt off to help a small-time hunter in cleaning his deer.

Rias bit down on her lip as she watched her second Knight disappear.

* * *

If there was one thing Issei could be happy about, it was that every time he and his parents had a meal together, they seemed a little more normal. There was still tension, but it was easing off. Their words didn't come out quite so mechanically or feel as forced now as they had the previous meals. Once dinner was finished, Issei thanked his parents for the food and trekked up the stairs.

He did not, however, go to his own room. Instead, he slid quietly into the spare room with a one of his textbooks in his hands. Issei had no intention of studying, however.

Instead, he locked the door and flicked the lightswitch. The light came on, a somewhat underpowered incandescent bulb that bathed the entire room in a rather eerie yellow glow. Once he'd drawn the curtains, he took a deep breath.

Then, he focused his thoughts and will upon his shoulder blades.

This time, there was no delay, and Issei felt the distinct sensation of something sliding out of his back in exactly those places. Turning his head to look, his eyes were confronted by the enormous black dragon wings he'd seen the previous day.

Something, however, was slightly different than he'd seen them the previous day. They seemed to be coated with something, as though they were the wings of a butterfly that had just torn loose from its cocoon. His fingers reached out, touched his wings. To his surprise, they were bitterly cold instead of the room temperature that they had been the previous day. Regardless of why, however, Issei's eyes hadn't deceived him.

Whatever this substance on his wings was, it had a similar consistency to water, and as he withdrew his fingers, he was greeted by another confusing sight.

This substance appeared as a liquid, and felt like a liquid, but it was visually unlike anything Issei could describe. "Black" was a word entirely insufficient to describe what sat on his fingers. It was as though someone had taken the vast emptiness of the universe and darkened it even further, to a degree that words simply failed to describe, liquefied it and spread it across his fingers like very watery and thin paint.

His fingers were going numb with the cold this substance generated, but Issei was too busy trying to determine just what this water-like blackness was to care.

"What the hell...?" Issei eventually muttered, half-unconsciously.

He hadn't intended to speak to Apophis, but the dragon answered anyway.

 _ **You find the sight of the Primordial Water to be impressive, then?**_

Issei blinked. "The... what?"

 _ **The Primordial Water. It is one of my simpler techniques – hardly a combative ability at all by my standard, if I may speak frankly – but it is still very dangerous by yours.**_

"I thought the Apex Ruin was about manipulating darkness, though."

 _ **It does indeed grant that capability, Issei Hyoudou. But that story is not complete. Other techniques lie buried within. The Primordial Water is one of them. If you insist upon a simplified description, this technique compresses darkness into a liquid state, and increases their power tremendously.**_

"How's darkness do anything?"

 _ **"Perhaps you might try to smear the liquid on something to which you are unattached."**_

Issei snorted, but he walked towards the bed nonetheless.

When he smeared the liquid on the foot of the spread, he hadn't expected anything to happen except that the unimaginably black liquid would permanently stain the bedspread.

When the brunette pulled his fingers back, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Perhaps it was a tad of an overreaction, but the sheer surprise of the result brought it about regardless.

Precisely where his fingers had touched it, the fabric had simply _vanished_. There wasn't even any sign of other threads poking out; it was a though the exact shape of Issei's own fingers had been a part of the comforter's design philosophy from the very beginning.

"Okay... what the fuck was that...?"

 _ **The Primordial Water possesses a strong dissolving capability, Issei Hyoudou. You can easily kill many with it, though it is of course vastly inferior to my own iteration. You will not be drowning a god with it anytime soon.**_

"So why didn't it hurt me? And what do you mean, "drown a god"? What, are you saying you did that?"

 _ **As the wielder of Apex Ruin, Issei Hyoudou, you are completely immune to its effects and any form of umbrakinesis. As for your second and third inquiries...I have done that thing exactly. I have dissolved gods down to their very cores before erasing even those from existence.**_

Issei could practically _see_ the cruel smile in Apophis' draconic face in the gleefulness of those words. Unnerved, he very quickly changed the subject.

"So this thing lets me control shadows, right? How do I do that?"

 _ **As with all things concerning Sacred Gears, central to the Apex Ruin's function is your own will. Focus on your desire for darkness to bow to your will, and it shall be so.**_

The brunette bit his lip as he took in just how moronic that sounded when spelled out. But then again, it had sounded stupid when Rias had said it, and he'd grown a pair of dragon wings for following it.

So Issei turned to a readily available source of darkness – the shadow underneath the bed. Staring at it, he willed it to come toward him.

Perhaps he should have been used to the seemingly-impossible by now, but he still jumped slightly when it indeed extended a thin tendril outward in a manner that defied all his understanding of physics, exactly as he asked it to. And when he demanded it begin moving in a three-dimensional space, the shadow obediently peeled itself from the floor and rose up to his eye level like a colossal, headless snake.

Issei's hand reached towards it, and found himself surprised yet again when he found that his hand did not simply pass through the shadowy tendril. Instead, his fingers were met with a substance with a consistency not unlike a very wet wood. It had the same frigid quality as the Primordial Water.

Once satisfied, he ordered the shadow back to its origin, and it obeyed instantly, re-absorbing itself into the shadow of the bed.

"So I can summon shadows that act like water and dissolve things, and manipulate shadows of other objects to attack things with?"

Apophis gave what sounded like a mildly irritated sigh. _**Yes, you may perform both of these actions and others. It is also, however, possible to create darkness even in a space where there is none utilizing only your own will.**_

"Really?" Without prompting, he held a hand out and began to focus his will on the space in his hand, trying to create a spherical shadow in the space above his hand.

After a few seconds, a black spheroid began to take shape there, sized exactly as his will had intended, and vanished even faster when he willed it to.

After spending a few seconds taking this and everything else he'd learned in the last several minutes in, Issei felt something well up inside of him.

He began to laugh. It wasn't a powerful laugh, not a roar that would be heard by anyone else, but a throbbing, humorless, half-crazed chuckle. And it didn't stop, and he found himself continuing this little laugh as he made his way back to his room.

It was after several minutes that Apophis finally, crankily, spoke up.

 _ **What is it you find so amusing, Issei Hyoudou?**_

"It's so funny, all this crap," Issei said, staring at the ceiling with wild thoughts running amok in his head. "I've got a tool that can control shadows and make them physical. I can compress shadows into a liquid that's like super-powered acid. Abilities that the crazy dragon in my back claims has killed gods."

 _ **While I will argue with your labeling of myself 'insane' until the end of your possession of this Sacred Gear or my own death, your statement is otherwise truthful. I fail to see the source of your amusement.**_

"I've got the ability to do that stuff... and I don't have a use for _any_ of it. When the hell am I ever going to need to fight anybody? I'm about as likely to get into a real fight to the death as the sun is to extinguish by tomorrow."

 _ **Perhaps I should kill this delusion at this moment.**_

"Oh, what now?" Issei said, still grinning.

 _ **Your life will be turbulent. Violence will find you, Issei Hyoudou, or you will find it. All of your predecessors found it, and you shall as well.**_

Issei's smile vanished. "What do you mean?"

 _ **Of the few possessors who did not destroy themselves utilizing the Apex Ruin, all became brutal combatants... particularly the exorcist.**_

It was then that Issei remembered Rias' comment. He hadn't paid it much mind at the time, but Rias had distinctly mentioned that the Apex Ruin was once held by a member of the church.

"Who were they?"

 _ **Mercia Rochester – a dangerous exorcist if one had ever existed. She was celebrated as the strongest exorcist in all of history during her lifetime. The woman defeated many Devils whose power was almost unparalleled among their number. Not that she ever paid me so much as a thanks or acknowledged me...**_

As he said that, Issei would swear that Apophis' tone had shifted. He hadn't sounded the usual calm, confident, cold and slightly smug dragon that he usually did. Issei was sure he was just imaging it, but Apophis had sounded distinctly _bitter_ as he described this exorcist.

But Issei wasn't ready to be feeling sympathy for Apophis just yet.

"Glad I don't have to fight her, then... hopefully no one stronger than her has come along yet..."

 _ **I would doubt it heavily. Apex Ruin is classified as the third-strongest of the Fourteen Longinus with good reason.**_

From nowhere, a new thought occurred to Issei, and his stomach did a slight flip.

"If I've got such a strong Longinus, and shadows hurt Angels especially badly, then won't the church...?" He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought.

 _ **You worry that Heaven and its warriors will consider you an especially important target? That they will do all they can to eliminate you? This I cannot and will not deny. Your suspicion is likely to prove true, Issei Hyoudou.**_

Issei certainly wasn't laughing anymore.

* * *

It went on like this for nearly two weeks.

Issei would awaken and promptly be handed one of the few unambiguously good moments of his day. Each day and meal, his parents seemed to fear him less, and by the time a week had passed, they appeared to be effectively normal once more. Apophis had explained that this was merely the result of exposure to the aura and, more importantly, his parent's desire to overcome the feelings it caused.

Then, he would go to school, and be treated as though he had the plague. Apparently, almost no one in the school had _any_ desire to overcome it, not even Matsuda or Motohama. While it certainly made moving from class to class easier when he could part the sea of students like the Red Sea parted for Moses, he'd rather have had to fight his way through the crowd like every other student. It was emotionally exhausting to constantly be the outcast and have everyone running away from you.

Then, he'd go to the Occult Research Club, retrieve a bag of fliers, pass them out, and arrive home nearly two hours later than he had before he'd become Rias' servant. The King had confessed that she'd considered putting him on contracts, but that the clients would likely be scared off.

It was the first time that he and Rias had ever agreed on something.

Then, one afternoon, when Issei asked Rias where the fliers were, she simply shook her head.

"I won't have you be doing that tonight, Issei. We've got a much bigger issue that needs resolving."

"What's that?"

"There's a Stray Devil in town, and I've received orders to kill it."

* * *

 _And cut._

 _If you want a better idea of what Mizar's halo looks like, just look up Bayonetta's Jubileus or Father Rodin and look at their halos. It's basically that. This is because I'm an uncreative bastard with no skills in visual design._


	5. Dissolution

_I do not own Highschool DxD._

* * *

"Stray Devil?"

It wasn't that Issei didn't understand what Rias had said to him. He was fluent in the language Rias spoke (and if Rias was telling him the truth, it wouldn't have mattered even if he wasn't), and he remembered the term as Rias and Ryuji had defined it. Yet he repeated the term as a question regardless. He had, in a sense, thought of the Stray Devil as something rare, certainly something he'd almost never have to deal with.

Yet here he was, being told the exact opposite. Against everything Ryuji had told him would suggest, one was here in Kuoh.

Rias nodded. "It's been tracked to this town. I received the order only an hour ago. Apparently, it killed three people in another town before it ran here."

Issei's question of why it was necessary to kill this Devil died as soon as those words exited Rias' throat, and he nodded. "Fine. Where is this creature?"

"We sent our familiars to scout the town," Rias said, "and they say it's most likely located in one of the old, abandoned factory buildings on the outskirts of town." She grinned, an expression that had become far less forced as the weeks had worn on. "Oh, don't worry. We won't be walking."

She nodded to the three other Devils in the room, and they gathered around Issei. Rias, for her part, stood from the desk and took a position facing her peerage. Underneath their feet, a large, glowing circle formed.

"Don't worry, Issei," Rias said. "I'll take care of this jump."

The world flashed white, and a moment later, the Occult Research Club meeting room stood empty.

* * *

Issei had shut his eyes as the blast of white light had overwhelmed his eyes. As a result, it was his nose that told him first that they had arrived.

The aroma of incense and wood had vanished, replaced by the smell of oil and slightly liquefied tar of the roadway. Issei's eyes opened.

Just as promised, a huge, abandoned building stood in front of him. Issei recognized it as a place that he'd ridden past on his bicycle several times but had never dared go inside.

It seemed he'd finally find out what was in there.

"This is the place," Koneko said, bobbing her head. "I can smell it."

"All right," came Rias' voice from the side, "Ryuji, Koneko and Kiba will take the offensive on this. Issei, I want you to hang back and just watch them in action."

"Don't worry, Issei," Ryuji said. "This should be done pretty quick."

"Not your first go-round, is it?" Issei asked dryly.

"Sadly, no," Kiba said. "We've had to deal with this sort of thing several times, Issei, and it's never pleasant." He had an irritated look on his face as he clutched a sword in his hand.

Issei blinked at that; he could've sworn that blade wasn't there a few seconds ago. After a moment, however, his attention was taken by Ryuji.

The black-haired boy's hand was held up, parallel to the ground, and around his palm was a glowing circle, imprinted with similar symbols to the transportation circles that Rias had used on several occasions. As Issei watched, what was distinctly the grip of a bow slowly protruded from the circle. The moment his fingers could be closed around it, Ryuji's fingers did so and pulled the bow from the circle.

That was when he turned and noticed Issei staring.

"Pocket dimension," the vice-president quickly explained. "A place I can stick things into and be able to pull them back out whenever I need them." A slight smirk came onto his face. "I think the school might have some issue with me carrying this thing around."

"So alternate dimensions exist," Issei said. "Okay, I'm not even going to question how that's possible." He nodded towards the bow. "Not much of a bow without any arrows, though."

Ryuji's grin widened, and he drew his fingers back over the arrow rest. As he did so, a light shimmered between his fingers.

A moment after, Issei was left blinking again as an arrow, seemingly made from light itself, was notched and ready to fire.

"Draconic bow, Issei," Ryuji said. "Built from dragon horns and draws on the residual energies contained in dragon flesh to create bolts with different effects."

"And _where_ did you get one of these?" Issei asked, rather incredulous.

"I built it," Ryuji replied, that goofy grin on his face getting wider by the second. "If you're thinking of trying to make one yourself, I'll warn you – they've got a _really_ steep learning curve. And procuring the materials is even tougher, given that the horns have to be fairly fresh and preserved in a somewhat specific way for the bow's power to not leak out."

"It'd be redundant anyway," Kiba said. "Issei, you have a high-tier Longinus. Any weapon you or any of us could make will be much weaker than that. You really don't _need_ another weapon, anyway. Like Rias said, you could potentially destroy the whole world with the Apex Ruin."

"Though we'd rather you didn't," Koneko said. "We live here, too."

Issei shook his head and sighed.

Rias nodded, a slight grin on her face. "Let's get this done, shall we?" She looked towards the short, white-haired girl. "Koneko, you want to take the lead?"

"Sure." With no further ceremony, the diminutive second-year walked up to the double doors to the factory and kicked them.

They exploded out of the way as though they'd been hit by a runaway snow plow.

Issei stumbled in last, trying to get his jaw to shut at the strength of the petite girl-

And his nose was immediately struck by a smell so rancid that he nearly vomited up what he'd eaten for lunch that day.  
The abandoned factory was almost pitch-black beyond about ten meters, but thanks to Issei's altered biology, his eyes were able to see perfectly fine.

There were at least three bodies scattered about on the floor, each of them torn to pieces.

Even as he watched, something fell from the ceiling. A fraction of a moment before it struck the floor, Issei realized it was a torso. A _human_ torso.

Issei recoiled as it smashed into the ground.

Not more than a second later, the voice slithered into their ears.

"Is it someone new…?" The voice was cooing and soft. Yet it was also gurgling and obviously irretrievably insane. "Someone wants to play?"

Issei felt his legs quiver as he had to restrain the urge to run away and never look back with every ounce of will he had. Yet simultaneously, none of the other Devils seemed the slightest bit intimidated.

"Stay calm, Issei," Rias said. "Keep your wits about you."

The brunette swallowed and immediately regretted it. The reek of blood and gore infested the air and tainted every breath he took. A scrabbling sound could be heard above them, but none could figure out where the creature was.

Ryuji raised his bow and nocked an arrow of light, this one golden.

"Flaring bolt."

He fired.

The dark factory exploded in a brilliant flash of light. Every dark corner was, for a moment, lit by the glare of a blast brighter than noon-day sun, and a distorted, inhuman scream crashed into Issei's ears. Issei swore he saw a lump on the ceiling, but his eyes couldn't be sure, and it was quite suddenly too dark for him to see. The flash had left his eyes as a pair of near-black spots.

Issei could see just enough to spot the massive form flying down, straight towards the white-haired second-year who'd kicked the doors open.

"Koneko!"

It was all he could get out before the creature was on her, its twisted and grotesque form bearing down, all five of its legs tipped with crude, bony claws ready to eviscerate Koneko. He could see its face for but a fraction of a heartbeat, all five of its sludge-green eyes focused on her while its jaw, lined with mismatched teeth, worked hungrily, eager to partake of the white-haired girl's flesh.

In response, Koneko had simply raised one arm.

And to Issei's shock and amazement, when the creature struck the hand of the extended arm, Koneko was not crushed into a pile of bones and crushed flesh.

Instead, the creature simply stopped, as though it had run headlong into the earth itself, a loud _bam_ echoing through Issei's ears.

The creature scrabbled, clawing at the empty air as it tried and failed to reach the limb that held it fast. Koneko's face didn't suggest that this took even the barest smidgen of effort to do.

"H-how?" Issei asked, breathlessly.

"Koneko is a Rook, Issei," Rias said from his side. "She has massively enhanced strength and defense."

"A Rook?"

"One of my pieces. I'll explain once we're done here."

Without any further ado, Koneko unceremoniously tossed the creature through the air, towards the solid brick wall of the factory. Yet even as the beast was airborne, from the corner of his eye, Issei saw Kiba move. His jaw dropped once more as he saw how fast.

One moment, Kiba was a few meters away from him. The next, he was on the other side of the factory, jumping and kicking off the wall towards the creature, sword in hand.

A second after, the creature had been cleaved neatly in two, its top and bottom halves separating.

Even as it struck the wall with a wet _slap_ that caused the whole building to rumble, Issei saw a second bolt leave Ryuji's arrow, this one silver and far larger than the last one. As it flew towards the bisected creature, the silver arrow split into nearly a dozen smaller ones, each and every one of which impaled the creature that was beginning to slide down the brick.

None of them disappeared upon striking it. Instead, they remained, pinning the creature in place and restraining it.

"Kiba and Ryuji are my two Knights. They have greatly increased speed and reflexes."

Issei was barely paying attention as he gaped at the coordination of the display, only snapping out of it when he saw Rias calmly stride towards the mutated and mutilated form that hung on the wall like a bloody decoration.

Once she'd positioned herself in front of the beast, she spoke. "You, who have murdered your master. I am Rias Gremory, here to exact vengeance for those you've killed. Disappear."

In her hand, Issei watched as a red-black ball of energy form; Issei could only assume this was some sort of ability she possessed. After a moment, she hurled it at the bizarre form impaled on the wall and the chunk that lay dead on the floor.

They turned to dust the moment the energy touched them.

After examining the wall for a moment, Rias nodded and turned around again. "And thus, the hunt ends. Get used to this, Issei. We'll probably be doing this again."

Issei's heart threatened mutiny against the bones of his chest, but he managed to bring himself to nod. He hoped dearly that it would be a while yet before this happened again.

"Now then," Rias said. "I'm sure you've grasped the theme of the pieces by this point."

"Ch-chess?"

"Right. Evil Pieces turn a creature into that Devil's servant and grant the one turned some ability or enhancement. Bishops possess increased demonic power – essentially, what we use to do magic and spells. Pawns can "promote", just like in real chess. They can take on the attributes of any piece on the board except a King once they've reached what's been designated "enemy territory" or, more often, the King tells them they can. The King, of course, is me. And no, there's no such thing as a King Piece."

With that, Rias and her peerage turned to go, walking out of the factory. Issei was trying to get his legs to stop wobbling about, and as a result was slow to follow them.

Just as he took the first step to do so, the obvious question coming to mind, Issei heard two sounds go through his ears at once – the first was an all-too-familiar scrabbling above his head.

The second was Apophis' voice.

 _ **Above you, Issei.**_

On instinct and in a panic, the Apex Ruin tore loose from Issei's back, and the readily-available shadows in the room fired upwards from the floor in spikes that reached above his head. As they did so, his own name, screamed from the throats of Ryuji and Rias, reached his ears.

Issei would later realize that if he'd been even a second slower, he might well have been torn to pieces.

Less than a meter above him, a wet slicing and sliding sound came to his ears, his face being sprayed by a warm liquid as an inhuman screech of agony blasted into his ears. Issei's head snapped upwards.

Impaled on the shadowed spikes was a second, _much larger_ creature. It was spiderlike in the basics of its biology, with eight legs, a thorax and an abdomen. But that was where the similarities ended.

Spiders didn't usually have deformed human heads, after all, or have an obvious red tint along cracks in their exoskeletons or have clawed paws instead of feet. Nor did they usually _speak_.

"You…" the spider-like being hissed in a voice tinged with excruciating pain, "… _you squashed my little pet_!"

It was as it said those words in that horrible, ugly voice that Issei realized that _this_ was the stray they'd been looking for. _This_ was the lump of black he'd seen when Ryuji had fired his first shot. _This_ was what had been speaking before.

Then he caught sight of something else. It one of the claws that thrashed uselessly in midair, Issei could see it: a half-eaten human head. For no more than a single breath, he saw the half of a face that remained.

The head had belonged to a woman, what remained of her face frozen forever in a horrified scream.

He didn't know the woman, but he knew, somewhere deep in his gut, that she'd been innocent. She'd been a normal, everyday person who had been lured in here and devoured. Did this woman have a family? Were there now children, somewhere in Kuoh, that would never know why their mother didn't come home? Did she have a promising career that she'd never get the chance to fulfill? Who had this stray killed to satisfy their own hunger and bloodlust?

The sight and those thoughts washed the sickness from his gut, filling him and swelling him with rage and purpose.

"Stay back," Issei said to the peerage members who had been temporarily rooted to their spots by shock at Issei's feat. "I'll handle this."

Purposefully, Issei spread the wings of the Apex Ruin out as far as he could and began speaking, very rapidly and quietly, to Apophis.

"The Primordial Water dissolves on contact, right?"

 _ **If the wielder should possess sufficient strength. But I sense this creature's size from its power emanation. It is far too large for you to dissolve… at least, without my aid…**_

"Then what do you want? I'll give it to you!"

 _ **Another part of your flesh. Your liver, perhaps. A small permanent boost to your power and a larger temporary one.**_

"Take it, take it!" Issei hissed. He could see the creature beginning to wrap its clawed limbs around the spears, scooting itself upwards centimeter by centimeter, and Issei didn't know if it would regenerate from the damage.

That was when the pain began to stab through his gut. It was a familiar pain, but one that he now embraced with open arms. After several seconds, Apophis spoke again.

 _ **It is done. Slay this beast immediately. The power will not last long. Know that if you do not wish to destroy something, the shadows shall not destroy it.**_

"Primordial Water!"

There was, of course, no need to shout the technique's name; Issei's will would have been enough. Alas, he'd watched enough animation in his lifetime that the habit had been ingrained long before he'd ever been in a real fight.

Yet in time with his shout, the black liquid that coated Issei's wings began to drop off them. It was slow at first, only a few drops, but steadily, the torrent grew fiercer, until it was a small waterfall of shadow cascading from the unnatural draconic appendages.

 _Don't destroy the concrete_ , Issei instructed it. _Or anything but what I'm about to drop into it._

The water followed that command as easily as the thought left his mind. The black, the concentrated liquid shadow spread out until it was nearly twice the size of the mutated Devil that was still struggling to free itself from its impalement.

Then, on Issei's command, the water stopped spread outward and began to push upwards in a way no liquid formed naturally would ever have done. Once Issei stood ankle-deep in the liquid that did not so much as wet his clothing, he stepped out from under the warped being.

With his order, the spikes of darkness vanished, and the Stray Devil fell into the black water.

The effect was almost immediate – the Stray Devil screamed, wailing in agony as it dissolved. The effect wasn't quite instantaneous, but there was no chance of escape. Its legs sank, never to surface again, in the liquid. Even as it rocked backwards to attempt to keep its human head above the water, the abdomen sank in and suffered the same fate as its legs.

Like a sinking ship, the Devil rapidly slid downwards, disintegrating.

Its last action was its human head snarling, a look of pure hatred directed towards Issei.

* * *

For a few seconds after the Stray had died, Issei left the water in place. On one hand, there was shock at how simple the whole process had been. On the other, he also wanted to make sure that it was truly gone.

Then, he let the water vanish. Just as Apophis had promised it would be, the concrete beneath remained untouched.

Then, the exhaustion hit him. Issei's hands fell to his knees as he bent double, feeling as though he'd just run a marathon, even as the other members of the peerage ran towards him and crowded him.

"That was amazing, Issei!" Ryuji exclaimed. "What _was_ that? That "Primordial Water" thing? I've never seen anything like it!"

"Pretty good," Koneko said, her tone emotionless.

"Yes, very good work, Issei. And also…" She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize that the first one wasn't actually our target. You shouldn't have had to do that."

"In her defense," Kiba said, "the kill order said nothing about this stray being able to bring mutilated corpses to life in creations like that."

Issei shook his head, wheezing. "D-doesn't… doesn't matter… it's… it's over… give me… a minute…"

"Let me make sure of that before we tempt fate any more than we already have," Ryuji said, raising his bow a second time. "Solar bolt."

This bolt, yellow in color, stuck into the ceiling, and unlike the last one, cast a warm glow, meant to illuminate rather than blind and irritate. Devils could see well in the dark, but there was no point in taking chances.

The ceiling was clear of anything else. No other monsters hid there, waiting to pounce on them or any unsuspecting humans who might wander in.

"Okay," Rias said. "Are you about ready to leave, Issei?"

"Yeah," Issei said. He raised a finger. "Just… a question."

"Yes? What is it?"

"Ryuji and Kiba are… Knights… Koneko's a Rook…"

Rias nodded.

"What piece am I?"

A slight smile tugged at Rias' face. "You, Issei Hyoudou, are my Queen. My most powerful piece – all the benefits I described for the other pieces? You have all of them simultaneously and permanently."

With that, Rias formed a glowing transportation circle underneath their feet, and a moment later, the factory stood empty.

* * *

Unbeknownst to any of the peerage, at the airport located on the outskirts of Kuoh, a certain plane with a certain passenger had just touched down.

That passenger was a beautiful young girl from a foreign country. She spoke almost none of the local language and was more than a little worried about finding the place she needed to go.

In her nervousness, she squeezed the plushie in her hands, given to her as the one gift a church member had ever given her.

"I hope it's all going to work out this time…" she murmured as she watched the plane taxi onto the tarmac, before looking down at the plushie in her arms.

 _ **Yes, Asia, hold onto hope. Even if you have nothing else left, you mustn't lose that. And know that while the church has abandoned you, I never will, no matter what the circumstances. This, I swear. And I dearly hope that this town will prove a better life for you.**_

"Thank you," she whispered, looking down at the plushie of the creature sealed within her soul. "Thank you, Ladon…"

* * *

 _And cut._

 _I'm fully aware that in canon, there's only one Stray Devil during that battle, not two. I made there be two because I wanted to have a space to show off the peerage's method of doing battle while also giving Issei himself something to do besides stand there and watch._

 _And yes, you read it right. Issei is the Queen here. If you want the reasoning for this, it's quite simple: Issei possesses a stronger Longinus here than he did canonically. Logically, it would take a stronger piece to reincarnate him. As a result of this and the Queen slot being open, he gets that place instead._


	6. Unknowing Representation

_I do not own Highschool DxD._

* * *

As Issei dragged himself homewards after the execution of the stray, he wasn't surprised in the slightest to hear Apophis' voice boom through his mind like an unwelcome houseguest.

 _ **'I shall never have use of your power', the host said. 'I will never have need to kill another with it', he said.**_

Issei said nothing in reply. For once, Apophis was completely right. Issei had said those things about the powers of the Apex Ruin, and within a month he'd acted against his own word.

As the brunette ate dinner, he began to wonder if Apophis might be right about anything else. He'd been filled with rage at the sight of the dead bodies, anger for the innocents who had been lured in and butchered by that insult to all creation. He'd wanted to annihilate the creature utterly, to make it pay for the lives it had taken with its own. In the minutes he had taken to return to his home, he had tried to rationalize it by saying that he had only done what was necessary.

Predictably, Apophis had tried to tell him otherwise, and this time Issei found it harder to ignore his words.

Certainly, there was no denying that killing the stray Devil that was butchering people for its food supply was the best course of action. Yet Issei also couldn't deny the perverse, cold and grim satisfaction he'd taken in dispatching the abominable spider-like beast that might once have been human.

And that brought up an obvious question – how could he be so calm after everything he'd seen tonight? He certainly couldn't believe that he could eat a normal dinner with his family only hours after seeing an old factory building with its floor slick with the blood and bone of his former fellows. He should have been bunched up on the floor, screaming and crying like a child who'd seen one too many nasty frights on the television. Was it because he was a Devil? Or perhaps the possessor of the Apex Ruin?

What was he anymore, really? _Who_ was he?

A month and a half ago, Issei would have found it very easy to describe himself: a perverted teenage boy who wanted a harem of women to fawn over him. He wasn't exceptional at any one thing, but he could learn fairly easily and he was generally middle-of-the-road in most activities.

But now? An unwilling Devil with no real friends, given that Matsuda and Motohama had abandoned him almost immediately upon his Sacred Gear's awakening?

Could he even be called that? If the Eclipse Dragon was telling the truth – and Issei had plenty of reason to believe him – then three of his organs were now composed of dragon flesh, changed such to extract more power from his Sacred Gear. What would that make him, then? A hybrid devil-dragon? And if he kept giving Apophis his flesh, what would eventually become of him?

If he, in time, became entirely composed of Apophis' flesh, what would happen then?

* * *

Most of the next day passed without any real incident. The student body, of course, still wanted nothing to do with Issei, but the brunette had grown used to that.

The ORC, as always, simply had him passing fliers out. At this point, Issei was simply walking into the club room, picking up the bag of fliers and walking back out in less than thirty seconds. He would speak to no one in the room, and given how rarely either Kiba or Ryuji were there, the others rarely started a conversation.

Rias had explained at one point that Kiba and Ryuji were usually gone quickly for differing reasons. Kiba was, apparently, quite popular with young ladies and had several regular "clients" with whom he worked. Ryuji, meanwhile, had fewer regular clients, but he often received time-consuming requests. Koneko often got other customers, apparently, but Issei had never seen her go out to one.

So it was that Issei was seated on a park bench in Kuoh. He'd taken a spot on the seat to appreciate a few moments of calm, to pretend that the last month or so of his life hadn't happened, that he wasn't the unwilling servant of a Devil he wanted very little to do with. Other people steered well clear of him, and for once Issei was fine with that. He wanted to be alone.

Issei's reprieve from reality was ended quite abruptly by a girl's voice bumping through his ears, a single word passing through his brain.

"Oof!"

The brunette's eyes opened, and his head swung towards the source of the noise.

There, not ten meters away, was a girl dressed in a nun's habit. She'd evidently tripped, given the small suitcase full of her belongings that he could see sprayed everywhere, not to mention the plush dragon that had rolled onto the cobblestone path.

Issei rose from the park bench, walking over and picking up the scattered belongings in his path. The girl, scrambling around to grab the dropped items before the wind blew them away, didn't acknowledge him at first. Only once she'd managed to grab the last item – a dragon plushie – did she seem to notice he was there.

Yet neither Issei nor the girl got the chance to speak before Apophis spoke, and Issei froze.

 _ **Well, well, well… what have we here?**_

If the nun had had any words to say, they'd clearly died in her throat. Her expression turned shocked almost as soon as Apophis had spoken.

"What's that, Ladon?" the girl whispered.

The two blinked at each other.

Then, after a few seconds, the girl's face twisted in horror, her red eyes filling with fear and hate. She scrambled to her feet, her arms bunched up around her belongings. "Don't come any closer…" the girl stammered. "I-I haven't done anything to you, a-and I don't want any… any trouble…"

Issei regarded her with a confused look. "Trouble? Why would there be trouble?"

The brunette ignored one of Apophis' trademark derisive snorts echoing through his mind.

At his words, the blonde nun suddenly blinked again. "W-wait… you can understand me?"

"Err… yeah? Why wouldn't I be able to?"

"I'm not…" the girl started to say, before she went rigid again. Then, she was whispering again, though Issei's massively enhanced hearing left him privy to the words she spoke.

"He's… what? Are you sure?"

The girl gulped as her eyes swung back towards Issei, examining him with a new terror.

"What do you want from me?" she whimpered.

"Well, you could tell me why you're acting like this, for starters," Issei said. "Seriously, calm the heck down. I don't even know your name."

"You're a Devil, aren't you?"

It was Issei's turn to blink in surprise, but he refused to let his face stay that way for too long. "Yeah, unfortunately. But I don't have any ill will against the church."

 _Not yet, anyway_.

The girl bit her lip.

"Then… you're not here to…"

"Hurt you?" Issei asked, throwing a dart in the dark. "No. I don't even know who you are. Why would I want to do anything to you?"

"You're… _that_ one, aren't you? You hate the others, right?"

Issei blinked. "What do you mean, 'that' one? What 'others'?"

 _ **Perhaps I ought not to leave you spluttering about any longer, Issei Hyoudou.**_

Issei's eyes snapped back to his shoulder instinctively. "What is it?"

 _ **This girl with whom you converse is the wielder of a Sacred Gear called "Hesperides Sanctum".**_

"Meaning?"

 _ **Bound to her soul is Ladon, the Insomniac Dragon – the Evil Dragon sentinel who stood watch over a garden of Greek myth. He has no doubt sensed you, and my own existence by extension.**_

Issei took a sharp breath as his eyes shot back to the blonde-haired girl.

He knew the myth of Ladon – vaguely, perhaps, but he knew it. The serpentine dragon that coiled itself around and around the tree from which the Golden Apples hung. Struck down by Heracles and left to rot.

The brunette and nun each swallowed at the other, but the girl in the veil could see the sudden understanding in Issei's eyes as he spoke to reinforce that point.

"Oh."

For a few seconds, the brunette and blonde stood silent. As they did, the former racked his brain for something to say, and even when he found it, he wondered how it would come off.

Yet despite his doubts, he said it anyway.

"You uh… you need some help?"

The girl tensed up slightly at those words. "N-no. W-well, yes, but… I don't want it from you."

"Why not?"

"You're a Devil, right? You'll want something in exchange…" The girl's voice trembled as she spoke, and the words didn't have much bite to them. Sensing a chance to break the ice, Issei became a tad more forward.

"Don't worry about that. If there's something I can do to help you, I will. No charge, no strings attached, nothing. I don't do the whole "contract" thing anyways. Well, besides killing me, that is."

The girl bit her lip, obviously considering. Then, her eyes flicked downwards.

"…you're sure?"

She turned to look at Issei again, her red eyes filled with a mix of nervousness and anticipation. "…could you tell me where the church is?"

"The church?" Issei asked, his appearance looking slightly puzzled. "I mean, I know where it is, but… why there?"

"The people I was supposed to meet told me to go there."

"If you're sure…"

* * *

The two walked in silence for the next twenty minutes. It was more than a kilometer out of Issei's way to go to the church itself, but Issei didn't mind the diversion. He supposed he wanted _somebody_ outside his family to be willing to look past the aura he emitted, to see the person behind it. If a bit of walking would get him the result he desired, so be it.

As they walked up the hill leading to the church, however, a horrible feeling began to manifest in Issei's chest. It started small, barely a spark in a massive cavern. Yet with every step closer, the feeling grew infinitesimally worse, and by the time they stood before the hulking, decayed building that had once been a cathedral, Issei wanted to run away and puke, not necessarily in that order.

He did everything in his power to keep his feelings off his features, but he knew he probably wasn't succeeding.

"Okay," Issei said. "You're… _sure_ this is where you need to be?"

"Why?" the girl asked. There was a flash of hostility in her tone. "Are you trying to go back on your word and get me alone?"

"No," Issei said, "I'm saying that because this place has been abandoned for… how long? Eight years at least? You're sure that this is where they asked you to come?"

"Yes," the girl said. The hostility had vanished. "I-I'm sorry about before…"

"No worries. I mean, if you're sure about this. What's your name, by the way? I never got it."

"Asia Argento," the girl responded after a moment. "It's been nice to meet you… uh…"

"Issei Hyoudou," the brunette replied, turning away. "See you around, I guess."

"Yeah, see you later," the blonde nun said, before walking quickly into the church as Issei walked away even faster.

* * *

When Issei was well clear of the church, he finally found himself able to breathe easier. He promptly used that breath to turn his words on Apophis.

"Okay, Apophis, explanation time. What the hell was up with that feeling?"

 _ **I am not capable of sensing your emotions any more than the thoughts of the Devil who proclaims you her servant, Issei Hyoudou. Utilizing meaningless pronouns is a fruitless exercise in conversation.**_

"Why was I terrified when going near the old church?"

One of Apophis' derisive snorts came through Issei's head. _**You, Issei Hyoudou, are a Devil in most aspects. A church is a rather holy place. To your kind, a church is the territory of enemies, of Angels and exorcists. It is only natural that fear of those elements would be instinctual.**_

"So I can't go near churches without feeling awful?"

 _ **That is the basic message I intended to communicate, yes.**_

"Another restriction on my life," Issei said, whistling through gritted teeth. "As if things weren't bad enough on that front."

 _ **One must learn to accept these things.**_

"Easy for the dragon with no body to say," Issei muttered.

 _ **Would you prefer to trade places with my mind? To be sealed eternally within this accursed prison by the arrogance of a being below you? To watch and listen as your hosts deem themselves far worthier than you of a title they have not earned? To know that you will never again smell the wind, feel the sun on your skin or watch the world race by beneath your form? To know that you have been reduced to a tale to scare children, instead of the beast with whom none would dare trifle? To lose all that you-**_

"Alright, I get it, I get it," Issei said, cutting Apophis off. He said no more to Apophis as he walked back to Kuoh Academy, and with it to the Occult Research Club building.

* * *

"You did _what_?!" Rias squawked.

"I took a lost nun to the church in the town," Issei said, every word an annoyed deadpan. "That's all."

When Issei returned to the ORC club room, he was inevitably asked by Rias (the only person there) what had taken so long. She hadn't been mad, just curious. That changed, however, the moment he explained what had happened between him and the nun.

"You _can't_ go near a church facility, Issei," Rias said, trying to reign in her emotions. "It's- "

"Enemy territory, I get it," Issei said, cutting her off. He had very little desire to deal with her right now. "Angels might come down from on high and blast me to kingdom come if I go near the church or whatever. Yadda, yadda, yadda."

"Issei, you're not taking this half as seriously as you should be," Rias said. "Going near the church is as good as asking to die, especially if exorcists are around."

"What part of 'I get it' did you not understand?" Issei asked. He was getting quite aggravated with his King's transparent attempts at controlling him. "I'm not a toddler." The brunette spun on his heels. "Good-bye, Rias. I'll see you tomorrow."

Just as he stalked out, a transportation circle appeared on the floor, and in its center formed the white-haired Rook of the peerage. Almost immediately, the girl took in the sight of her master's frustrated countenance.

"What's wrong, President?" Koneko asked as she began rooting through a cupboard in search of something sweet.

"It's Issei…" Rias replied, covering her face with her hands and rubbing at her eyes. "He apparently decided to show a nun the way to the town church. The one that the Fallen Angels are using."

"Stupid," Koneko said as she pulled out a pastry.

"Oh, that's not the worst part," Rias said. "I tried to warn him and let him now not to do that again, for his own sake. He didn't seem to care – seemed like he blew me off completely. I'm trying to keep him safe and he acts like I'm treating him like a child!"

"Like I said: stupid." The Rook took a bite of her pastry.

Rias groaned. "And what do you want to bet he's going to go mix himself up with the church again anyway?"

"Pretty good chance."

"What's it going to _take_ , Koneko? Before Issei starts taking this a little more seriously?"

Koneko's hands stopped moving. It wasn't at all like Rias to ask her servants questions like this.

After a few seconds, all she could say was that she had no idea.

* * *

The next catastrophe to strike Issei couldn't even be bothered to wait until he got home. It had been a simple enough matter – walk the half kilometer from the school to his house. He'd done it hundreds of times without any incident.

Yet tonight changed that sequence, that natural order that Issei had long since come to regard as fixed, unchanging and rooted.

It was almost completely dark now, and no one was on the street. The last rays of sunlight had slipped below the horizon, leaving the blackness of the sky and twinkling of stars drowned out by streetlights.

It was as he walked down a street almost exactly halfway between the school and his home that Apophis' voice interrupted his thoughts.

 _ **Issei, upon my utterance, strafe. Which direction matters not.**_

"Huh? What's the- "

 _ **NOW.**_

On instinct, Issei jumped to the left.

Half a second later, a spear of yellow light struck the ground exactly where he'd been standing. The pavement ripped effortlessly beneath its blow, burying itself several inches into the tarmac.

Heart racing, Issei flipped around.

There, standing atop one of the streetlights, was a woman.

She was an attractive specimen, no doubts about that. Her navy-blue hair contrasted excellently with her red suit that was several centimeters past scandalous. Yet what spread behind her negated those attributes.

For what spread out behind her was two black, feather-coated wings.

"What the hell!" Issei called, both fearful and angry.

"Sorry, kid," the woman said, "but this isn't personal." She formed another spear of light in her hand and flung it at him. This time, however, Issei was long gone from the space by the time it hit the ground where he'd been. He'd shortened the distance between herself and him, angrily shouting at his assailant.

"Hey! I'm a Devil under Rias, jackass! You can't attack me!"

"Not going to stop me," the woman said, taking to the wing and readying two more spears, one in each hand. "I hate to tell you this, kid, but Raynare was told to get rid of you by any means necessary. Came straight from Azazel himself." A cold smirk came to her face. "And really? You think your death will mean anything in the long run? It's not like a war's going to start over it."

The spears were flung again, but Issei easily sidestepped them. As he did so, Apophis' voice ripped through his brain.

 _ **No end shall be achieved by reason, Issei Hyoudou. You have but two options – run away, or stand and fight as an Evil Dragon should.**_

For no more than a heartbeat did Issei toy with the idea of running. There was no question in his mind that if he ran to his home now, this woman might hurt his parents trying to get to him. His parents didn't deserve to be hurt because of his own cowardice. None of what had happened to him had anything to do with them.

He could not let them be harmed by this. Would not.

Instead, Issei grimaced as he sized up his opponent.

One second later, the wings of the Apex Ruin tore loose from his back.

* * *

 _And cut._

 _ **Cue the laughter of the demented circus clowns on meth**_

 _This took so long because I was struggling with the interaction between Asia and Issei._


	7. A Bit of a Mess

_I do not own Highschool DxD_.

* * *

As soon as the wings of the Apex Ruin tore loose from Issei's back, the blue-haired Fallen's face twisted in shock, her spear momentarily forgotten.

"No… no way! There's no way you could control that!"

Issei wasn't listening to her, however. He was entirely focused on an internal conversation, one had in mere seconds.

 _ **You choose to fight then, Issei Hyoudou?**_

 _Yeah. What do you want as a sacrifice?_

 _ **Sacrifice? Hah! Your current strength is entirely sufficient to eradicate this foolish Fallen. Allow the Primordial Water to flow from the wings. Instruct it to wreathe you, coat you as an armor and dissolve the light of the Fallen. Then you may toy with her as you wish.**_

Issei followed the dragon's instruction, his glare towards the Fallen Angel never flinching even as the bitterly cold water slid over his skin, wrapping him in its frigid embrace.

"That's impossible!" the Fallen Angel screamed. "Azazel said you were too weak – "

"Guess his info was off." Issei didn't bother with another word as he raised his hand. Within his open palm, the exact opposite of his opponent's weapons began to form. As the shadows compressed, the Fallen's eyes widened. Half a second later, she chucked the spear in her hand straight at Issei. At the same moment, Issei threw his own.

The two spear's trajectories put them directly in one another's paths. Issei was sure he knew how this would go – the spears would collide, they would both explode, and a cloud of dust would be kicked up. During that time, each of them would try to hide from the other and use the dust to prepare their next attack.

But that wasn't what happened.

Instead, when the two spears of dark and light collided, the Fallen Angel's spear was instantly destroyed, and Issei's continued to shoot forward, as though having devoured the light.

The Fallen Angel was barely able to jump into the air to dodge before the black spear, vanished against the night sky, crossed where she'd been only a heartbeat before. Her face appeared confident, but the shake in her voice revealed her true feelings easily enough.

"I-I guess you're stronger than we expected! But it won't help you!"

Around her, the Fallen Angel manifested several light spears, all of them pointed at Issei.

"Take this!"

 _ **You need not dodge.**_ Apophis' voice was cruelly smug. _**The Primordial Water will easily handle defense.**_

As the light spears came at him, Issei moved anyway, too frightened by the spears of light to simply stand in place and take the attack head-on. Sliding underneath the spears that pulverized the tarmac in six places, Issei began to will his Sacred Gear's wings to flap.

The effort resulted in his rocketing upwards through the air at a speed he hadn't ever expected.

 _ **Shall I aid you? I may control your aerial movement for you and allow you to concentrate on the battle… not that it should require much.**_

"Yeah, sure," Issei whispered.

Another spear came at the brunette as the Fallen Angel evidently realized she'd bitten off more than she could chew. She was trying to run now, tossing spears as she went.

But Issei's Queen piece and replaced organs showed their prowess, and in combination with Issei's will, the Devil was much faster than the Fallen Angel. Still the blue-haired woman slid, avoiding a shadowy spear by fractions of an inch.

" _Damn it!_ " she screamed. "Get the fuck _away_!"

More spears and more dodges. The nervousness was fading now as Issei easily zipped between the shots and closed the gap between himself and the Fallen Angel.

Once close enough, the final stroke was almost too easy. A black spear formed in his hand.

In the blink of an eye, it had been slammed through the blue-haired woman's chest.

At the impact, the Fallen Angel went limp for a moment, just a moment. Then, she began to plummet to the ground in a dizzying spiral, slow enough as to not kill on impact but cause immense pain.

A dull, wet _thud_ went through Issei's ears as she crashed into the pavement. Issei landed a few seconds later.

Blood flowed out from the gaping wound in the woman's chest, painting the tarmac a red visible even in the moonlight. The woman's wails of agony were low, even as magical circles formed over her wound, attempting to keep any more blood from flowing out.

"P-please… help me…" the brunette heard her call after a moment.

Issei almost felt a shred of sympathy for the Fallen Angel. But he wasn't going to help. Not in a hundred years.

"No."

The brunette knew there was more he could say, more statements about how she would rot here, how she deserved it and that she'd brought it on herself. But he saw no need to bother with them. The listener would be dead in a few minutes anyway. Fallen Angels were tougher than humans, yes, but skewering them through the chest with a spear of darkness would produce the same result in both species.

Instead, Issei simply walked away, leaving his foe to oblivion.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Issei, the Fallen Angel had begun moving the instant he turned his back. Over his own footsteps, he didn't recognize the shuffling as being more than her death throes.

He didn't recognize the sound of a person struggling to reach into their pocket. And by the time the phone was extracted from said pocket and keys began being pressed, he was too far away to hear the sounds.

For an agonizing two rings the blue-haired woman waited for a response.

"Hello, Raynare speaking."

"R-R-R-Raynare…" the Fallen Angel choked out. "Injured… hurt bad… bring the girl…"

"Kalawarner?" the Fallen Angel heard Raynare say with alarm. "Where are you?"

Once she'd gotten the address, Kalawarner could hear the thumping of footsteps and Raynare barking out orders, no doubt to the nun.

After a few more seconds of pain, Kalawarner's vision turning hazy as it went on, she saw the blonde nun and the black-haired Raynare appearing, no doubt from a teleportation circle.

"Fix her," Raynare snapped. " _Now!_ "

The nun darted forwards, a red glow appearing in her hands, and finally the pain began to mercifully recede.

Flesh slid back into place, regenerating as the glow wormed its way into the cavity formed by the black spear. Blood was recreated, flowing once more through newly-repaired blood vessels. Shattered bone fragments dissolved, the tiny fractures repairing underneath the crimson light.

The entire process took no more than a minute, and once it had passed, Kalawarner's chest was flawless once more, lacking even the tiniest scar.

"Thank you," she said breathlessly to the blonde nun known as Asia. Sure, they were preparing to kill her, but it was no big deal to show her some politeness now and then, especially after she'd saved her life.

Asia didn't answer, merely looking at Kalawarner with those hard, green eyes. Kalawarner looked away and towards Raynare.

"How'd this happen?" Raynare demanded.

Kalwarner took a deep breath, appreciating the feeling of not being in torturous, grueling pain for a few more seconds before answering. "Remember that kid you killed? The one who got resurrected as a Devil?"

"Yeah, him. The one who held the Apex Ruin that Lord Azazel wanted gone? What about him?"

"Lord Azazel's information was off. He's unlocked it, all right, and he used it on me."

Raynare narrowed her eyes at Kalawarner. "Impossible. He's too weak to ever control it."

"Then explain what just happened to me," Kalawarner said flatly. "He chased me through the air on a pair of black dragon wings with silver gems in them, and then rammed a spear of darkness through my chest. I'd love to hear your idea of how he did all that if it wasn't the Apex Ruin."

For a moment, Raynare didn't reply, a deep frown forming on her face. "Well, then, I suppose it's obvious what we need to do. From this point onwards, we all keep away from him. As long as we don't provoke him, he probably won't move against us."

"You don't have to tell me," Kalawarner replied, nodding. "It's Mittelt and Dohnaseek…"

Raynare nodded. "Mittelt's already proven herself to be unreliable. She didn't pick the girl up, after all." Her eyes flicked to Asia for only a fraction of a moment. "Dohnaseek got unlucky, what with that idiot Devil showing up. But like I said, no more interaction between us and them. It's caused us nothing but trouble."

* * *

As Issei walked away from the Fallen Angel whom he'd though was surely dead, Apophis' unwelcome voice broke into his own thoughts once more.

 _ **You do not intend to kill her, then?**_

 _Not personally, no. No need. She's got a giant hole in her gut._

 _ **Disappointing… I had so looked forward to hearing her beg for her life and scream in agony…**_

Issei actually slowed his walk slightly at Apophis' words, his face twisting into an uncomfortable grimace.

 _…sorry?_

 _ **Apologies are an irrelevant waste of words.**_

Apophis' tone had turned irritated. While it wasn't an unfamiliar tone for the dragon to take, the thoughts they followed left Issei genuinely unnerved.

As he walked, Issei tried to get his mind off the Evil Dragon's desire to hear screaming by pulling out his phone and dialing a specific number.

It seemed another thing he'd swore he'd never use would be used in short order.

One ring. Two. Three.

"Hello, Rias Gremory speaking."

"Evening, Rias."

Rias was evidently thrown off by hearing Issei's voice through her phone, and her next words sounded rather uncertain. "Uh, good evening, Issei. Is there something you need?"

"Just going to warn you. You know, the thing you couldn't be bothered to do for me."

Rias sighed, but made no comment on his snipe. "What is it, Issei?"

"There was another Fallen Angel in town. There might be more hanging around."

"And how did you find this out?"

"One tried to kill me."

The brunette heard Rias gasp, and her next words came out much more hurried. "Are you all right, Issei?"

"Fine, thanks. She didn't hit me even once."

"That's good… what about the Fallen Angel?"

"She's dead. Or will be very shortly. She's bleeding to death on the pavement."

"Issei, stop where you are."

The brunette blinked. "Why?"

"If she's dying or dead, we need to get rid of the body before some human comes along and finds it. If the corpse ends up in a morgue, the coroner will figure out sooner or later that they're not human. And once they find that out, the supernatural world won't be a secret anymore unless we manage to get the help of multiple mythologies, and with so many Gods dead in this day and age, even that might not be enough. The results would probably be catastrophic, and you'd be the reason for all of it. That's _bad_."

Issei exhaled. "Fine."

"Where are you now?"

Once she'd gotten the location, the phone clicked off, and seconds later, a circle of teleportation appeared next to Issei.

From it formed Rias Gremory, who didn't let Issei even speak before she gave him one of her few real commands.

"Show me where the body is, Issei. We need to hurry."

"Follow me," Issei said dryly.

And so, the two took off, jogging back the way that Issei came. It took no more than a couple of minutes to return to the place where Issei had left the Fallen Angel to bleed to death.

But there was no sign whatsoever of her, and the only hint she had ever existed was a rapidly-drying pool of blood soaking the pavement.

Rias looked at Issei, whose face was twisting in confusion and rage. "Oh dear…"

"I swear to you, Rias, I _did_ fight –"

"Yes, Issei, I believe you," Rias said, cutting him off. She pointed to the crimson pool. "The blood is pretty good proof of that. But the lack of a body means that either someone else got to the body before we did, or your report of her death was greatly exaggerated." She knelt down, and in her palm, she formed a tiny sphere of the red-black energy Issei had seen during the fight with the Stray Devil.

"What is that, exactly?" Issei asked. "That energy?"

"The Power of Destruction," Rias explained. "It's an ability I inherited. Allows me to destroy matter, organic or not, fairly easily. I'm not even in the same dimension as my mother or _especially_ my brother, though. Just need to clean the blood up."

"I could do that more easily with the Primordial Water."

"I'll handle it, Issei. Just… go home."

Issei snorted. "You're the boss."

* * *

An hour or so later, Issei was lying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, when he finally asked the question to Apophis that he'd had on his mind ever since a certain claim had come out of the Eclipse Dragon.

 _Apophis, you said you've killed gods, right?_

 _ **Indeed.**_

 _How many? And which ones, for that matter?_

Issei could hear Apophis chuckle. It was a deep, sadistic tone drenched in malice and cruel recollection, laughing at tortures long ago inflicted.

 _ **Oh, this will take a short while. I recall Bastet, Kukulkan, Loki, Poseidon, Camazotz, Aten, Kartikeya, Hera, Brahma, Hephaestus, Vishnu and Thor, among others… fools, all of them.**_

Issei's heart started pounding away like a jackhammer at the list, and he asked the only question that could be asked.

 _Why?_

 _ **They chose to strike at me unprovoked. I have never made secret the fact that I have little tolerance or patience for such things. They were dispatched without mercy.**_

 _I'm guessing most mythologies hate you?_

 _ **One of the reasons I rarely stayed in one place very long, except for to conduct experiments.**_

Issei briefly considered asking Apophis what exactly these "experiments" entailed, but his conscious mind decided the Eclipse Dragon's form and thought processes were more than enough fuel for his nightmares. Without asking anymore questions, he rolled over and tried to sleep.

* * *

The next day went almost entirely like the previous days before it did. Issei ate a good breakfast with his parents and then was promptly avoided by everyone else afterwards.

Things started to change, however, when he arrived at the Occult Research Club building.

For one thing, the bag of fliers was completely absent, and Rias told him to simply wait a bit for the others to arrive.

Once they had, she immediately informed them of what had happened the previous night involving Issei's duel with the Fallen Angel.

"We must stay vigilant. If that Fallen Angel has survived, then every one of us is potentially in serious danger. There's a chance they might try to strike back. Until I can be sure that the Fallen Angel threat is cleared, keep your eyes wide open. I won't demand you pair up or anything of that nature, but be on your guard at all times."

"Yes, President!" came the resounding cry from three of the four present Devils.

Rias nodded, and then her frown turned to something of a smile. "Now that that's taken care of, I think I ought to remind you of what tonight is, Issei."

"And what's that?"

"The full moon. No fliers for you tonight – we'll be taking you to find a familiar. But before we go…" The red-haired Devil stood from her desk and began examining the bookshelf behind her, before nodding and withdrawing a book from the shelf.

"Take a look through this," she said, holding the book to Issei. "A guide to familiar candidates. It doesn't hurt to have an idea of what you might want. Don't get your heart too set on one, though – it might not be there."

Issei nodded, seeing her logic, and opened the book to the glossary.

* * *

As much as he might not want to admit it, Issei couldn't help getting sucked into the book.

At first, he thought that an Amphisbaena might be interesting, with their ability to control the wind and dragon-like structures. That was forgotten upon seeing Cursed Wyverns, which could rot what they coated with their breath and create armies of skeletons using magic. After that, he a Hellhound would be interesting, what with its fire-based abilities and absolute loyalty to a master.

As he turned over a new page, however, the thoughts of those previous familiars were forgotten as he was treated to a beautifully-painted image of an entirely different creature.

That wasn't to say that the others hadn't had wonderful portraits of their own, but this creature captivated him in a completely different respect.

Nine hissing snake heads stared out of the page and into Issei's eyes, which quickly darted to the side.

 _Nine-headed Hydra… massive strength when full-grown, insane durability, lethal poison…_

Issei smiled.

"Find something you might want, Issei?" Rias asked.

"Maybe. How hard is domesticating a Nine-Headed Hydra?"

Rias made a thoughtful _hmm_. "A little tricky, but far from impossible. Finding it might prove a bit of a challenge, but if you're willing to look and get a little lucky, then it's a great choice for a familiar."

"Well then," Issei said, snapping the book shut. "I'd say we're wasting time, then."

"Any other choices?"

"Say a Cursed Wyvern, Frost Phoenix or Dwarf Leviathan. The book claims the first two aren't that hard to find."

"Nope, they're not," Rias said, looking happier than she'd been in quite some time. "And like you say, we're wasting time. Let's get going, shall we?" She pointed at the floor, and the signature teleportation circle formed. "It'll be just us two, Issei. A larger group would probably frighten most potential familiars off."

With that, King and Queen stepped onto the circle. Seconds later, they were gone.

* * *

 _And cut._

 _Let me make it clear – healing is not the only power Hesperides Sanctum possesses. It's part of the package._


	8. Searching for a Snake

_Vishnu, Brahma? two of the Top 4 strongest Beings in existence? Yeah...not good._

 _ **Putting aside the fact that power levels, such as they are, are different in this universe anyway, neither Vishnu nor Brahma are in the Top 4 of canon if looked at logically. Ophis, Great Red and 666 take up three spots already, with the fourth possibly being Shiva (since we know that he's stronger than the other two). Either way, there's literally not space for them. And that's before we include that giving a list of the "Top 10 strongest" is a terrible writing decision on its own.**_

 _I do not own Highschool DxD_.

* * *

Before Issei's eyes even opened, the heat slapped him in the face, coating and choking him as though he were standing in a sauna. Opening his eyes, his gaze swept about their destination, and he saw that wherever he was, he was far, _far_ from Kuoh town.

There were no buildings in sight and no noises to indicate such. Of course, neither of these facts meant much when in every direction, Issei could see only a dense line of trees and thick underbrush. No, what truly meant something was that the trees and plants were like nothing he'd seen anywhere back home.

The trees bent and twisted in ways that would've been impossible for any tree Issei knew of, and no tree he knew of was naturally silver or blue-red. The bizarre trees were sliced in the dark by the thin rays of dying sun that made it past the thick, leafy canopy.

"Here we are, Issei," came Rias' voice. Issei turned to look at her, standing next to him, hand on her hip and a genuine smile on her face. "Oh, it's been too long."

"Where's "here", exactly?"

"This is the Familiar Forest," Rias said, her free arm gesturing to the trees about. "I suppose you could say that this is your first visit to the Underworld, Issei." She chuckled. "So, welcome. Welcome to Hell."

"Sure feels like it," Issei said, feeling the sweat already beginning to seep into his clothes. He shook his head. "All right, where do we go if we want to find this Hydra?"

At that, Rias looked around. "Now that you mention it… where _is_ he?"

""He"?"

"The Familiar Master," Rias explained. "A guide to Devils looking for familiars – he knows different types of familiars that exist, what powers they have and the requirements for making contracts with them. No expedition for a familiar's complete without him." A frown crept onto her features as her gaze swept around. "No sign of him, though..."

"That mean we need to wait?"

Rias shook her head. "I know where we'd find a Nine-Headed Hydra – it's a few kilometers from here. And if that falls through, there's a particularly thick part of forest over there, and I saw at least one Cursed Wyvern in that area when Ryuji came to get his familiar. Maybe they'll still be around?"

Issei shrugged. "Lead the way."

* * *

As Issei followed Rias through the thick forest and slipped through the underbrush, he quickly began to notice another oddity about the wood.

Issei and Rias weren't exactly being quiet, hacking through the plants on the forest floor as they were. The inhabitants of most forests would have been scared off by the noise the two Devils made, and yet the creatures that inhabited this wood didn't even seem to care. And what inhabitants there were to see! Issei spotted numerous creatures he'd seen in the book Rias had given him, and a few that seemed straight out of storybooks – Chimeras, disappointingly small, could be seen stalking prey, their snake tails watching Issei and Rias for any hint of aggression. Issei swore he spotted a sleeping cockatrice, and overhead, he saw at least one Griffin patrolling the sky.

At one point, Issei nearly changed his mind about the Hydra upon stepping into a clearing and spotting a massive wolf-like beast devouring a carcass. Blood dripped off its fur that concealed thick, powerful muscles. Yet the moment Issei pointed it out to Rias as a potential familiar, Rias grabbed him and pulled him into the underbrush.

"Rias, what are you doing?" Issei hissed.

"Don't even think about it," Rias whispered. "That's a Garm, Issei."

"A what?"

"A beast from Norse mythology. It's not impossible to take one as a familiar, but that's way above either of our capabilities right now."

 _ **The princess is not incorrect, Issei Hyoudou. Even with a sacrifice, the Garm would overwhelm you with ease, and the Garm will never obey a master that cannot best it in battle.**_

Issei winced as Apophis confirmed Rias' thoughts. "Okay. Disappointing, but I get it."

With that, they moved on.

* * *

Fortunately for the two Devils, they spotted nothing that wanted to attack them as they walked towards the lake. Unfortunately for Issei, he also saw nothing he might want as a fallback if the Hydra fell through, and certainly none of his secondary choices.

Issei could hear the roar of water as they approached the edge of the tree line, and as the trees ended and the lake came into view, the brunette's breath caught.

The lake was beautiful. There were no caveats, no catches. It was simply beautiful. The sun had set, leaving the full moon to glint off the water's surface. The lake was back by cliffs from the angle they'd approached from, and as Issei looked up, he spotted the trio of waterfalls that had created the noise he'd heard as he'd walked out of the trees. The lake, probably three quarters of a kilometer square or so in size, smelled fresh and clean.

But that wasn't what Issei was there for, and after a few seconds he shook his head, trying to refocus.

"Well, that's unfortunate." Rias' voice carried from behind, and Issei turned to face her. She held her chin, eyes sweeping back and forth over the lake.

"No sign of it?"

"None that I can see," Rias said. "Hydras tend to live in lakes, but they leave pretty often to hunt on land, too. If it were here, there'd be some destroyed trees as well." Her arm swept across the unbroken tree line. "I suppose it moved on or something else."

"You sure it's not just asleep under the water?"

"Hydras are air-breathers, Issei. If it were asleep, there'd be at least one of its heads above the surface to make sure it didn't drown."

Issei's teeth ground. He wanted that Hydra, dammit, and he wasn't going to give up _that_ easily.

The wings of the Apex Ruin spread out.

"Issei, what are you doing?" Rias asked, concern thick in her voice.

"I'm taking a second look anyway."

Rias sighed. "Suit yourself."

As the wings of the Apex Ruin flapped and Issei shot skyward, Apophis spoke up.

 _ **This exercise is entirely without purpose, Issei Hyoudou.**_

"Just being thorough," Issei muttered, trying to control his flight as he began to will himself forwards.

 _ **The princess' words are truthful. A Hydra is a lumbering creature and draws its breath from the sky above.**_

"I'm checking anyway." With that, the brunette dived down at a shallow angle over the water. He refused to distract himself by looking out over the forest, which was no doubt a beautiful sight. Instead, he stared into the lake below, trying to make out anything in the abyss.

His enhanced eyes made out a school of fish and a few aquatic beasts that he couldn't name. A large creature that looked like a shark crossed with a crab darted into the school, snagging one of the creatures and swallowing it whole.

Issei's brow furrowed as he continued to fly over the lake. He continued to see those same sorts of aquatic creatures he had seen before, but no sign of –

"What was that?" Issei whispered to himself.

Just below the surface, Issei saw… _something_ shoot past at incredible speed, so fast that he hadn't been able to get a clear view of it. In its wake, the water churned and kicked up comparatively massive waves, each a meter or so high.

 _There's something huge under there…_

"Hey, Apophis, you feel anything?"

 _ **Beyond my annoyance at your insistence upon the misuse of time seeking that which is not present, yes. A large presence.**_

"Where?"

Issei didn't have time to hear Apophis' answer before he suddenly shot upwards against his will – and just he did so, an immense creature burst forth from the lake beneath him, a titanic roaring nearly splitting Issei's eardrums.

Issei was barely out of range before the massive jaws snapped shut a few centimeters from the bottom of his foot, and the brunette let out a scream.

The eyes belonged to a massive reptilian creature. It held his gaze for no more than an instant before gravity took its course and it began to fall back towards the water, but the sheer rage and malice Issei could see in its frenzied eyes told him everything he needed to know.

The beast vanished into the darkness of the lake once more, but before Issei could relax, Apophis' voice growled through his mind.

 _ **I would advise you leave the area. It no doubt readies another attack.**_

"What the hell is that thing?!" Issei cried as he tried to ascend even higher, only to barely avoid the next leap as the creature attacked again. Water droplets, torn from the creature's brown scales by inertia, splashed Issei's clothing.

 _ **Doubtless that it is a Silt Dragon.**_

"A what?!" Issei demanded as he flew away, the creature leaping into the air again far behind him.

 _ **A species of dragon that primarily makes its dwelling in large bodies of water. Should you be of such a mind, it is not within your strength to defeat it at this time.**_

Issei asked no more questions as he landed on the sand near Rias, who appeared horrified.

"Issei, we need to get out of here! _Now_! Those things are territorial!"

Issei needed no more explanation, but before he could take off again, Rias grabbed his shoulder. "Don't fly! Just _run_!"

 _ **The princess is correct. They are water dwellers, but Silt Dragons are excellent fliers nonetheless. They are far slower on land.**_

Just as the two Devils began to run, Issei heard the sound of something crawling onto the beach. He looked back.

The Silt Dragon had crawled up onto the land, and it looked even more enraged than before.

* * *

Issei bolted through the trees, thick underbrush tearing at his clothes and skin. He was bleeding from numerous cuts, but the sound of snapping trees and grinding vegetation behind him had his full attention.

Didn't this thing _ever_ give up?

He'd been running for a good twenty minutes, far harder than he'd ever run before, and while he wasn't breathing too hard, his legs felt like jelly. Whatever good the Queen piece might have been doing him wasn't enough, and Issei knew that if he stumbled or slipped, the creature would be on him before he could recover.

He had no idea where Rias even was at this point – nowhere nearby, that was for sure. They'd gotten separated early in their run from this enraged monster behind them. He couldn't be sure whether Rias had ditched him or not, but his guess was on the latter.

Issei only knew two things for certain: He was losing this race, and he really, _really_ wanted to go home.

A tree, distressingly close by, was smashed through, and shattered bits of bark found Issei's back. The Silt Dragon snarled and roared behind him, unwavering in its course.

Issei jumped over a log and spread out the wings of the Apex Ruin, trying to buy himself a few seconds as he crossed a carcass-littered clearing before he was forced to run once more. He'd tried to toss dark spears at the Silt Dragon, but they'd glanced off its scales without so much as scratching it. The Primordial Water hadn't done much more than that, and Apophis had advised him that nothing he did would get through the Silt Dragon's heavily-armored scales.

So he ran on, barely keeping out of the Silt Dragon's jaws. It roared behind him, closer than ever, and Issei was grateful that it didn't have some sort of breath weapon. He'd tried to confuse it by changing his course, but the Silt Dragon had proved to be far nimbler than it looked, and Issei had wound up losing ground to it.

A foot slammed down only a few meters from Issei. The ground shook, and he stumbled.

Just as he'd rolled, trying to get to his feet so he could take to the wing, the creature's foot slammed down on top of him.

Issei felt ribs crunch and pain rip through his chest. He screamed.

In his swimming vision, the Silt Dragon's head lowered, lips pulling back as it snarled at him.

The brunette could see the intelligence in its eyes, the joy in its face at its own cruelty. It was savoring his fear.

For a second, his pain-wracked mind thought of Apophis' own countenance before his life began to flash before his eyes.

He saw his father with his fishing rod. His mother in the kitchen, smiling happily as she cooked. His friends, peeping on the Kendo club and watching porn. The giant black dog slashing into the Silt Dragon's side –

Wait, what?

Clarity came back to Issei Hyoudou as the pressure of the Silt Dragon's claw suddenly released, the foot to which it was attached moving to batter at the massive canine at the Silt Dragon's side. The Garm roared in anger, the Silt Dragon in pain as the former's claws tore at the latter. The scales that had easily shrugged off Issei's shadows were rent apart by the claws of the Garm, thick and chunky blood pouring from the Silt Dragon as it bit down on the Garm's shoulder.

Issei never saw the rest. The moment he was able, he spread the Apex Ruin and took off, flying as fast as he could away from the brawl between the two creatures.

* * *

He didn't stop for nearly half an hour, desperately trying to force more speed out of the Apex Ruin even as excruciating pain stabbed through his chest. His head repeatedly whipped back in fear, fully expecting the Silt Dragon to be on his tail and closing in.

It never was.

Issei eventually set down in another clearing after he was finally convinced that he'd completely shaken the Silt Dragon. He set down, and was immediately confronted by two new problems:

He had no idea where Rias was, and he was hopelessly lost.

Issei supposed he could have flown back to the lake, but he didn't dare – if the Silt Dragon had won the fight, it would surely be trudging back to its home. And if it felt Apophis' aura, it would chase him again. If he'd been losing the race before, he would never make it even half a kilometer. Not with the pain leaping around his torso.

Instead, he simply sank next to a tree and tried to rest. The pain, however, made this impossible.

 _ **You intend to slumber, Issei Hyoudou?**_

"Nah," Issei said, groaning. "Hurts too much for that…"

 _ **Shall I repair them in my… own way?**_

Under most circumstances, Issei Hyoudou would've said no. But this wasn't most circumstances.

Within a minute, the pain was gone, and Issei could finally breathe once more.

When he dug into his pocket, he found his phone had been smashed, no doubt by the Silt Dragon when it had attacked him. He swore and tossed it away, but he didn't stand. He knew he should probably get up and start trying to find Rias or someone else, but the knowledge that he would probably fail held him fast. Instead, he began idly chatting with Apophis.

"Why do you think that Garm attacked? You know anything about that?"

 _ **The Garm did not act in your welfare, Issei Hyoudou, and it is foolish to believe otherwise. Garm are as violently territorial towards perceived threats as Silt Dragons.**_

"So why didn't it attack us the first time we went through the clearing?"

 _ **Garm are extremely insensitive to auras, Issei Hyoudou. It certainly perceived your presence, but it likely failed to see you as any threat. Silt Dragons are their opposites, and your possession of my prison likely caused it to perceive you as a dragon, and thus, a challenger to their claim on the lake.**_

"Great… so you're saying that any dragon I encounter will think I'm trying to take their territory?"

 _ **Few dragons are quite so violent as to not hear reason, and all can speak. It is unlikely to be a problem with the majority of species. Should you be so curious, speaking with this Silt Dragon would not have helped.**_

"Think that dragon might've killed the Hydra?"

 _ **It is entirely within the realm of possibility.**_

"Right..."

As Issei lay there, staring at the moonlit sky, the last of the adrenaline flowed out of his blood. Exhaustion smashed into him like a freight train, and his eyes began to droop.

Despite Apophis' annoyed grumblings, Issei didn't fight it. Instead, he decided he'd close his eyes for a little bit, just long enough to rest his brain. Then he'd go looking for Rias.

It would have been a good plan, if only he'd managed to follow through with it.

Soon enough, Issei Hyoudou was snoring beneath the bizarre tree as the moon shown down on him.

* * *

 _And cut._

 _You thought I'd forgotten about this story, didn't you?_


End file.
